I’ve been ‘into’ cycling since forever and obsessed with bike parts ever since my friend Greg extolled the virtues of Super Record and his father’s gold chrome Medici Pro Strada. Cute bike ;) : Super Record, Cinelli, 19 pounds, but it wasn’t truly Italian. Around the same time, I also discovered Celeste! At the time, Pinarello Gios and Mercks were all better bikes, but nothing looked as sexy and nothing was as cool as a Celeste Bianchi! I pleaded Santa for a Superleggera for the following two years, and when summer of 1985 came around, my father, fed up with all the Superleggera and Campagnolo nightly dinner conversations, bought me the next (next) best thing: a Bianchi Veloce with Campagnolo Triomphe! Superleggera it was not, and not a Super Record part in sight, but it was decked out in never before seen campy, and it was… Celeste! I thought I was Greg Lemond on that machine, even with all it’s shortcomings (no chrome, fender eyelets on rear Gipiemme dropouts, a non-corsa geometry – I was only 14 but hey, I knew my bikes!). Over the years, I upgraded everything I could to C-Record (Super Record had become sooooo yesterday – and chicks only dug guys with C-Record - LOL) and simichromed the dropouts to make them shine just like chrome. I’m still ‘upgrading’ it to this day, and finally replaced that hideous crank! I raced it for several years, did my first century on it, but my dreams of a Superleggera never faded, not even 30 years later :).
Tags: Bianchi, Campagnolo, Campagnolo super record, Vintage Bianchi