Attached is a largish picture of my beloved Bianchi...purchased with my first job earnings in 1984 in Heidelberg, W. Germany for the princely sum of $400 US (tax-free and a sweet discount courtesy of a U.S. government business agreement). I am steadily adding Campagnolo bits to it to replace foolish "improvements" I've made over the years. It won't be entirely Campy when I am done -- I am trying to represent some of the other Italian manufacturers such as Gipiemme (brakes), Ofmega (a pristine pair of "Super Competizione" cranks that I bought in 1987), ITM (bar/stem combo). One of the truly interesting features of this bike are the original Campagnolo "990" derailleurs, much maligned by so-called "serious" Campy collectors, but entirely bulletproof and quite striking, in my experience. I have about 25K miles on these, and they function as they did when I first rolled out of the Bianchi/Piaggio shop in Germany -- perfectly!

I am still running a Maillard "Helicomatic" hub and freewheel -- salvaged from a crashed Trek and used to replace a badly taco-ed Mavic E2 rim. Soon I will be upgrading to some Velocity rims with a vintage pair of Campagnolo Record hubs and a beautiful 6-speed Regina Oro freewheel I scored off Ebay.

I love the site --keep up the great work!

Jack Sweeney
"Ghost Rider"
Tampa, FL

silverstardesigngroup@verizon.net