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@Verbs_&_Nouns
So I picked up a beat up (beausaged?) 1994 Bianchi Osprey MTB frame yesterday to replace my Clydesdale forked bent Specialized Rockhopper kid carrier. Of course in my rush of buying it from the local bike co-op, I neglected it I pick up that it’s 1” threadless and my Clydesdale is 1 1/8”. Great. So what do I do now? I considered selling it to a mate for what I paid for it, or storing it and doing something with it down the track, but I got to tinkering this afternoon and ended up doing some parts swapping with my bikes. I was looking at this Bianchi that I bought and had an idea.
Firstly the Clydesdale fork went onto my All City Spacehorse. That’s 1 1/8”, so it was a straight swap. I was hesitant to put the Clydesdale on that frame because I don’t love the way they look with 700c rear wheels and 20” front wheels. I saw this Blue Lug build and didn’t mind it and there also this Crust Romanceur on IG and even though it’s not a 700c rear wheel (it’s 650b so just a touch bigger than 26”), it looks good. So the forks were swapped. Still need to do some finishing touches on that with spacers, pedals and the front brake. That’s also 1x10, with decent gears and rear rack mounts that I can carry my son on if I want, so that’s sorted. Currently it’s winter here and we’re barely riding together anyway.
That left the Specialized fork-less. No biggy, the frame was bent anyway. As much as I tried, I couldn’t bend the seatstay back. I still have the original fork (no 1 1/8” threaded headset though), so I’ll hold on to this frame for the time being.
As I was lying in bed half-listening to my 5 and a half year old son talk about Minecraft instead of going to sleep, I thought about the Bianchi some more. What will I do with this build? I don’t need another bike and barely have the space for one, but it’s a cool frame and I haven’t built up a bike from the frame up for a while now, so here’s the plan:
Currently I’m riding my Paconi gravel bike a lot on all sorts of stuff. Gravel, single track, mellow MTB trails…. Some of that riding isn’t that great with 700 x 40c tyres and cantilever brakes. It’d be nice to have something with even bigger tyres and the stopping power of v-brakes. In comes the Bianchi to do some “mountain bike” riding. I’ve never had a mountain bike to do this kind of riding. Granted it’s a 90’s rigid steel frame, but that’s gotta be better than trying to do some of this riding on an old touring frame.
All the parts currently on the Specialized Rockhopper will swap straight on to the Bianchi.
I might put the Soma Porteur rack and Wald 137 basket from the Spacehorse on here as well. I am so used to having a rack and basket on my Paconi I’d be lost without it. Just gotta make sure the rack will be okay with 26” wheels. I may also go full mudguards as well. I love the look of knobby tyres and mudguards.
I need to buy a shim for the stem (I think I might have one though), figure out the seat post size and buy that and buy a seat post binder bolt / steal one from another one of my bikes for now. I’ll also have to buy all new cables.
The frame is cool. All top tube cable routing, a subtle metallic paint and it’s “lugged” (Bianchi Superlug construction: A 1/2 lug was brazed to the tubes then tig-welded to the head tube and seat tube. The idea being that it made a better than joint with a lighter tube than just tig-welding). I’m going to try and clean up the frame and make sure that all the threads are okay. I also have to try and dig out the front wheel that has been packed away for a year.
Funnily enough when I bought this frame I was wearing a Drive Like Jehu “Yank Crime” t-shirt, which came out in 1994.
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