Bianchi Veloce

This is Annette’s Bianchi Veloce restoration. The Bianchi Veloce is a great bike with some pretty nice Campagnolo components. Annette has had the Bianchi for sometime and really likes it so its time for a restoration. I can’t wait wait to get started on the Bianchi.

The Bianchi will receive a total restoration with new powder coat paint, I found a very nice powder color match to match the Bianchi Celeste color. The Bianchi will also get new bearings, tires, tire tubes, cables, cable housings, brake pads and handlebar tape.

The Bianchi Veloce is in okay starting shape, the components are in good starting shape, the paint is not but that is okay, the wheels are in good starting shape also.

The paint of the Bianchi’s paint was in very rough shape so the frame went out to powder coating. I had Britte Industries in Arlington Heights do the powder coating. I found the color that matches the Bianchi very well and a high gloss top coat and brought it with the frame to Britte. Britte did a good job on the powder coating and the color is perfect.

The headset is a very nice headset. A cool feature of the headset is a band that covers the headset, it is thee black stripe with the Bianchi logo. I cleaned the headset and polished it, the headset polished beautifully and installed it looks fantastic with the new powder coat and the polished fork.

The bottom bracket is an Italian thread cartridge bottom bracket, the bottom bracket is in really good shape and still spins perfect, It installed easy.

Next on the list is the stem and handlebars. The handlebars are in good shape and the stem is in good starting shape. I removed the old handlebar tape and the brake levers and cleaned the handlebars and stem. The handlebars polished very nice and the stem looks great, I did use some touch up paint on a few scratches and it looks perfect.

The stem and handlebars look great installed with the new powder coat.

The front derailleur is also a Campagnolo derailleur, also a very nice component. I cleaned and polished the front derailleur and then lubricated the pivot points. The derailleur functions great and looks great with the new powder coat. I think I am saying that a lot but the paint is great!

Front Derailleur Installed
Next on the list is the seat post, the seat post is surprisingly light, the seat post polished decently but some of the scratches where a little to deep to be remove. Installed the seat post looks great with the paint and the saddle installed.

Saddle – Installed
Next is the brake calipers. The brake calipers are nice dual pivot, being dual pivot and hat they flushed and cleaned very well I did not totally disassemble them. i polished the pieces and installed the brake calipers.

The Campagnolo brake pads I got are not fitting the brake calipers so I will get ones that fit tomorrow. Like everything else the polish brake calipers look fantastic with the new paint.

Rear Brake Caliper Installed
The wheels are very nice wheels, the rear wheel has cartridge bearings so they do not get replaced, cartridge bearings are very nice and meant to be rode until they stop. The front wheel hub is pretty standard. I disassembled the wheels and did the cleaning, I then polished the hubs and they look fantastic. I replaced the front bearings and packed them in new grease.

Wheels – Complete
At this point its time for all the new bits and pieces. The new brake pads, new tires and tubes, new cables & cable housings and new handlebar tape.

The brake pads installed easy but I did need to use the original brake pad nuts as the new nuts where to wide. The brake pads are nice with the chrome housing compared to the old rubber ones.

Rear Brake Pads
Next was the new Continental folding bead tires. The tires are very nice and very easy to install for 700 x 23 mm tires. The new tires look great installed against the new powder coat and all the restored components. Its really coming together.

New Continental Tires Installed
Next is installing the new cables and cable housings. The cables and housing went easy and the new cable housings look great with the new powder coat.

Cables & Housings Installed
Tomorrow the chain and some test riding, then the new handlebar tape. I have the Bianchi decals, or the best match I could find. I use some time tomorrow for one more search to see if I can find an exact match but I think that might be unlikely but the decals I have are pretty good.

The Bianchi is basically done except for the decals which I am searching one more time for a better match, I have a pretty good match but its me and I like things just so.

I took the Bianchi for a test ride and right of the front derailleur and shift lever was not working well at all, the shift lever was not releasing back after shifting, After a lot of examining I discovered a small spring was missing inside the shift lever, I was very lucky to have an old broken Campy shift and brake lever that I could take the spring from. The front derailleur now shifts perfectly although it was a frustrating couple of hours.

The Bianchi test road beautifully after the spring was installed, very fast and very smooth and that is on a bike that is way to small for me, I bet it will ride even more amazing for Annette. I am very impressed with the ride quality and the quality of the Bianchi overall.

Head Badge – Installed
I went back and fourth on decals for a long time. The original decals are not avalable so i had to work with what was. I found a lot of decals that looked similar but had colors in them that would look wrong like a red highlight.

I finally decided on the classic Celeste color decals. They are not as flashy as the original decals but look so very cool being the same tone, almost like a ghost effect! I don’t know if it was the correct choice but i think they turned out fantastic.

Top Tube Decal Installed
The test rides have been down but I just want to say again the Bianchi rides fantastic, shifting is very crisp and it stops on a dime.

Even better then the ride is the looks of the Bianchi! The Powder coat turned out fantastic, just fantastic!! I could not be happier with the results. All t he components polished beautifully and really look good against the Bianchi color. The black components really compliment the color nicely and the black wall tires are perfect!

The Bianchi was a lot of fun to work on and I am super pleased with the results, the color is truly stunning.

Thank you for the interest.