• Latest Bikes
  • Editors’ Choice
  • Latest News
  • About Boutique Cycles
  • Submit a Bike

Register / Login

Forgot your password?

Search

Hybrid

Bianchi Convert

  • Owner: andymangold
  • Country: United States
  • Brand: Bianchi
  • Model: Unknown
  • Posted: 08 February 2010

About this bike

Hi, I’m Andy, a student at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, MD.

This is my Bianchi road bike I got of of Craigslist last summer after I crashed and totalled my everyday rider. I was never able to figure out the exact model or year, but I suspect it’s early to mid seventies. When I got it, it had a beat up royal blue coat of paint and so I made it my winter project to refinish this baby.

I had the frame sandblasted down to the raw steel and clear powder coated to show off the material and welds. The parts I replaced on it are as follows:

– Back wheel is a Sturmey Archer SRF3 laced to a Velocity Aerohead rim (from Craigslist)
– Front wheel is a Surly hub laced to a Velocity Aero rim
– Nitto/Velo Orange Montmarte bars, flipped and wrapped in Elkhide
– Bar end brake levers from Tektro
– Single Salsa interrupter lever on the left
– Brooks B-17 Champion that I have moved from bike to bike for about a year
– Velo Orange pedals
– MKS Clips with Leather wrapped toes
– Velo Orange Leather Straps
– Fyxation Session 700 Tires
– Woven steel brake cables from Velo Orange

All other parts are the same as when I received the bike. I had to wrap the shifter cable to the frame with waxed linen thread because the road bike obviously didn’t have the proper mounts to accommodate a 3 speed.

Riding this on the streets of Baltimore almost everyday. Please let me know if you need any more information.

Share this bike

Recent Comments

4
Dr Cycle
09 February 2010  at  2:14 PM

Hybrid “Bianchi Convert”: Three simple words and my attention is focused on this 3-speed with its elkhide-wrapped bars and upright stature.

With “Bianchi” still holding onto, ‘the world’s oldest bicycle maker company in existence today’ tag, you don’t need to be a convert to appreciate this brand of bicycle to appreciate the history of cycling which this bicycle represents.

All you really need is a love of cycling, a pure eye, and a humble heart, to fully appreciate this bicycle. For this bicycle is a bridge between a refined and elegant old-world charm, and a new-world practicality of employing the need for a robust 3-speed mechanism which would allow the rider to perform admirably alongside modern traffic and in modern traffic conditions.

Baltimore, a city in the USA portrayed in pop-culture as a tatty place, is in fact a lucky place to have such a formidable build rolling along its streets.
I wish I could ride this bicycle to the theatre, or my next book-club meeting. It’s high class, and I’m in love, but I was already a convert to “Bianchi”. 

In conclusion; this bicycle is overstated, but it deserves to be because it is the Hybrid “Bianchi Convert”.

Well done, owner/builder.

Andy
08 February 2010  at  9:04 AM

Hybrid is fine with me, I don’t much care how it is labeled. I was trying to make the perfect city bike: three highish speeds and an upright riding position for visibility in traffic.

Chris Gillespie
08 February 2010  at  8:10 AM

Hey Andy, i would say maybe it’s a hybrid then. Although it’s a road frame, an internal 3 speed mechanism and it’s looks suggest more of hybrid. Happy to change if you object mind you; it’s a hard one to call?

Andy
08 February 2010  at  8:00 AM

I don’t know if this better fits into the road bike category, but it is worth mentioning that this is not a single-speed, but a 3 speed, internally shifting hub.

Leave a comment

Read all comments

Previous Next

Bike
Categories

  • – BMX13
  • – Fixed Gear102
  • – Mountain30
  • – Road38
  • – Hybrid6
  • – Single Speed30
  • – Exotic18

Editors’
Choice

  • – March 2010
  • – February 2010
  • – January 2010
  • – December 2009
  • – November 2009
  • – October 2009
  • – September 2009
  • – August 2009
  • – July 2009
  • – June 2009
  • – May 2009
  • – April 2009
  • – View all editors’ choice

Bike
Archives

  • – March 2010
  • – February 2010
  • – January 2010
  • – December 2009
  • – November 2009
  • – October 2009
  • – September 2009
  • – August 2009
  • – July 2009
  • – June 2009
  • – May 2009
  • – April 2009
© Boutique Cycles 2010 Terms of Use | Privacy Policy | Advertising | Contact Us | Twitter | RSS