"So you’re here to see the crono bikes…”
Well, we were writing a book on fixed-gear bikes, and were excited about looking through Bianchi’s archive of classic track irons. But something got lost in translation, and Bianchi had taken their most famous crono rather than their pista machines out of the store. No way were we going to turn down the opportunity to see some of the finest of Bianchi’s time trial machines, prepared specially for our visit…
To whet your appetite, here’s the sight that welcomed us at the Bianchi factory outside Milan back in ‘08.
Another one here from our Bianchi factory visit. This time one of Marco Pantani’s TT bikes. 650 front wheel, custom fork and handlebar design with a Mercatone yellow/celeste paintjob, and a pirate saddle of course. nice!
A softride-esque custom frame for Gianni Bugno (1991 and 1992 world time-trial champion). note the grip-shift style shifters on the end of the TT bar.
Another custom for Bugno. I’m not sure this one (and in fact, also the last one) ever actually saw any racing - not entirely sure the UCI allow disc-brakes. more to come…"
Stories for the Italian Cycling Journal about rides, granfondos, having a good time cycling in Italy, Italian cycling history, etc. are very welcome. Contact me at veronaman@gmail.com. There are more than 1,300 stories in this blog. The search feature to the right works best for finding subjects in the blog and there is also a translate button at the bottom so you can translate each page.
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