# Help me put a year/model to this frame!



## Auriaprottu (Oct 27, 2002)

Thanks in advance. Wish I could get the photos to load...

It's a Bianchi, lugged steel, dark blue, almost purple metallic with silver "Bianchi" lettering on the seat and down tubes accompanied by that backwards "F" shaped block (that's the best way I can describe it). The dropouts are horizontal and stamped Bianchi as well. Three braze-on rear brake cable guides on top of the top tube. There is no model name on the top tube. The seatstays have a circled "B" engraved on them at the top where they meet the seat lug. There is also a celeste (not gold) Columbus decal in the usual place near the top of the seat tube, and it reads "Tubi Rinforzati Bianchi Special cromo molibdeno produzione Columbus". the from The fork is lugged as well, with a rather flat crown, and has an uncircled "B" engraved on both sides of the crown. Both blades have a decal (again, celeste) in the usual place up near the crown. They read "Foderi forcella Bianchi special Columbus". There is a "Made in italy" decal on the down tube near the BB shell. The shell is stamped A209 A5. The derailleur cable guide is white plastic and attaches with a screw. The frame is a typical lugged steel road frame, 27.2 post, 126mm O.L.D., braze-on downtube shifter mounts, and came with a Shimano 600 headset, a Shimano 36x24T (Italian, I assume) bottom bracket, and a Sugino seatpost binder bolt (the parts may or may not be original). Bottle bosses on the down tube only. Accepts recessed calipers and 700c wheels. 

I bought the frame on ebay a few days ago, and intend to make a fixie of it. I don't think it's a particularly high-end model, so I plan to strip it, remove the unnecessary braze-ons (shifter, rear brake cable guide, maybe the derailleur hanger and seatstay guide) refinish in celeste, redecal and clearcoat. My questions are as follows:

1- Does anyone here know the exact (or ballpark) year and model of this frame?
2- Where can I find replacement Bianchi/Columbus decals in celeste?

Again, thanks in advance.


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