1990 Bianchi Sika

As mentioned on page one of this thread, my love for Bianchi bikes started with how impressive I found my friends mid 80s Bianchi road bike BITD. I didn’t just love the way it rode, I loved the way it looked.

While I’ve always loved that my 2019 dumpster dive produced a celeste green Bianchi MTB I’ve never been fond of the graphics/livery Bianchi went with for the 1990 lineup. I’ve always had it in the back of my mind: “I wonder how it would look if it had them same graphics/decals as the 86’-87’ bikes like my friends road bike and the first generation Super Grizzlys which I prefer much more?”

The other day it hit me while sipping a pint and waiting for some buddies to join up at the pub, maybe I should create my own downtube & seat tube decals in dark blue in the font/style I prefer most and find out? I started searching images on-line and after collecting some images of what I had in mind & creating some mock up images I shared my crazy idea with some of my collecting buddies and my wife & kids (who typically dig my efforts and have good taste IMHO). The feedback was mostly: both are good, maybe stick with the stock decals while only a couple agreed the new decals proposed were an improvement, but one wise person did say: “it’s your bike, who cares what others think?”

It’s true that we should please ourselves first I agree but we wouldn’t be sharing our builds with like minded collectors if we didn’t care at all what others think right?

Which brings me to a question, what do readers of this thread think? Knowing there is no going back now, finding repops of these decals would be unlikely and I don’t have the ability to create decals of this type. I’d never go back anyway, I love the result and new look, it’s the Bianchi look I always wanted.

Anyway, apart from the new home made decals, note the Bianchi branded celeste green chainstay protector, Syncros titanium seatpost (to match the Ti stem), silver/grey (M900 style) cable housings, M900 headset, Suntour wheel skewers and WTB grips have been some other recent updates.

😊

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I think they look fine, and it is your bike like you say. However, I do personally prefer the other decals, nothing to do with originality, more the added background in the design.
 
Classy machine. personally I prefer the updated branding. This is all very subjective so if asked enough of the right people you get the answer you want.

It feels more Bianchi to me, but this is because I still own my late 90s Bianchi road bike with Bianchi seemingly repeated on every individual tube of the frameset!!!

Which leads me to wonder if you're next move will be the introduction of a hint of yellow... ;) 🧐🤔

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Classy machine. personally I prefer the updated branding. This is all very subjective so if asked enough of the right people you get the answer you want.

It feels more Bianchi to me, but this is because I still own my late 90s Bianchi road bike with Bianchi seemingly repeated on every individual tube of the frameset!!!

Which leads me to wonder if you're next move will be the introduction of a hint of yellow... ;) 🧐🤔

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Now that is one lovely road bike! 😍
 
A few changes made recently 😊

I decided to add an M900 skewer set recently freed up from another build.

I knew M900 wheel skewers would not pair well with the current wheels which are arguably too new for my Bianchi build anyway especially the black CODA hubs.

A decision was made to build a new set of wheels for the Bianchi. I had a nice set of M231 rims in silver color not being used so selected them for the wheel build, then eventually tracked down a decent set of M900 hubs. The Bianchi had 130 rear spacing so cold setting the stays outward needed to happen, good thing it’s a steel frame 😊

Merlin titanium handlebar :cool:

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The Bianchi has had 7 speed XT shifter pods for years. The M900 brake levers were a steal of a buy many swap meets ago due to their lack of shifter pods.

As luck would have it, while in the midst of all the above efforts my sons friend brought over a vintage Tech MTB his uncle had gifted him, all low end 90s parts expert for the M900 brifters which he had recently broken the right side while trying to take them apart (they were all gummed up and non-functional), forcing the outboard nut clockwise until it snapped the main shifter stem unaware the nut comes off counterclockwise.

My son’s friend asked to if I could get the old bike ridable. I made him a deal, I get the M900 shifter pods working for one of my bikes and in exchange I get his old Tech shifting again along with a good going over/tune up. His Tech only has a 7 speed cassette so a perfect match for the Bianchi’s current 7 speed XT shifter pods, win-win.

I was very lucky to have an unused set of DX brifters which share to same internal parts as M900.

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While I always liked the look of the previous black Mavic rims I think the switch to silver rims really suits the build, the build is now full M900 except for the cassette and seatpost

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Another nice one shit i never find bikes like that in skips love the color of these bianchi ( love to get on eventualy ) look better with the green tyres that rocky mountain as well never seen one with splatter paint very nice
 
@Canuckbiker you've done it again! Love the look of the Merlin bars vs. the highly polished Ibis stem. Nice work regarding the brifters: finding a cheap uncomplete XTR pair and then doing a deal with your sons friend and then using DX internals to get them working. Love it! And yes the silver Mavic M231's work really well with the Celeste colour and it looks super classy now. :cool: 😍 💪
 
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