Alex's Bianchi Sport Touring

Alex, a workshop manager at our Rachel street store and our in-house Spray.Bike paint expert, tells us the story of his Bianchi road tourer. It’s a great example of the kind of restoration and paint work we do at C&L, so get in touch if you have a similar project you’d like us to help out with!

6 years ago, when I first moved to Montreal, I left a lot of my belongings behind - including my car and my bicycle. Although the REV was only a project at that point, and Saint-Denis street’s 4 lanes of cars weren’t exactly bike-friendly, it was still clear to me that riding bicycles was the best way to get around town.

At the time, I was getting involved in community DIY workshops for bicycle repair, and it was at Mile End Bike Garage that a volunteer remembered a too-big Bianchi was sleeping in the back of a closet. A few days later I bought it, but it wasn’t until later that I understood the value of this rare gem that was exactly what I wanted and needed.

Designed by Bianchi, made in Japan, and sold exclusively in Canada, the “Sport Touring” model is, as you might expect, a sporty cycletourist frame. With a compact geometry and CrMo tubing, it’s light, nimble, but also very solid and capable of carrying lots of luggage without much rear-end flex.

Originally mainly equipped with Japanese components (Sugino, Dia-Compe, Suntour, etc.), I wanted to keep the original spirit of the bike with most parts designed or manufactured in Japan. Nitto, Shimano and Dia-Compe are the brands I chose for the majority of the parts.

These new parts allowed me to fully modernise the bike to my fancy, with a 3 by 10 indexed transmission using brifters as dialled as a well-tuned piano. Of all the available groupsets, Shimano’s Tiagra checked all the boxes for the perfect drivetrain, and it’s been working perfectly with great precision and smoothness.

My bike also features Tange, MKS, and H Plus Son parts which are also of the highest quality, which is confirmed by their smooth running after years and kilometres of use.

Of all the parts on this bike, my favourite are the MKS pedals that immediately smoothed out the pedaling from the first spin of the cranks, the Nitto seatpost that has such beautiful finish and lines, and the René Herse tires with the perfect balance of comfort, lightness, and speed (but especially comfort!).

Because the frame has a chromed rear triangle and fork, and because the original paint wasn’t properly adhered to that chrome from the onset, there wasn’t much paint left when I bought the bike. This was the perfect opportunity for me to practice paint and to restore it to its youthful splendour. Because I particularly liked the original colour (a sort of British Racing Green, but a little colder than that old classic), I compared dozens of similar tones before choosing the one that matched it the closest. I then thoroughly enjoyed repainting the frame and building it up with its new components.

Since I’ve had it, I’ve taken it on several trips (Vermont, Saguenay Fjord and Lac Saint-Jean, Waterfront Trail, etc). I equipped it with several bags with lines that work just right with the frame and have been very useful and functional both on tour and in town.

Two years ago, while I was preparing for a trip to Nova Scotia, a few months before departure I noticed two cracks at the junction of the fork blades and crown, which tolled the bell on a long life of adventures since its manufacturing in the late 80s. After that East Coast adventure with a replacement fork that broke after three days (that’s another story), the bike was treated to a new custom made fork that is just right.

This new fork was built by Spleen Cycles. We chose the components together and conceived it for a heavier-duty touring use case, while keeping a classic aesthetic that matches the frame and the rest of the bike. And since I still had some paint, I was able to colour match it for a perfect finish.

You might’ve noticed that the handlebar is no longer so straight:

A city work truck clipped it with its trailer when pulling out of a parking place. I contacted the city and that led to nothing, so I’m left with a flare on the right side that somehow appears to be the original design of the handlebar. I wasn’t too bothered, so rather than replacing it, I plan on bending it identically on the left. It might be the only Nitto compact drop bar with a flare!

Down the road, I expect to eventually lace up a dynamo wheel, mostly to fix my too-often issues with forgetting to charge my lights.

Photos by Troy