Anyone ever hear of a Bianchi Denali (90s MTB)?

kjarrett

kjarrett

Well-Known Member
IMG_7273.jpg

Acquired this today, can anyone here provide info? Could not find much, other than this entry in BikePedia (not a super reliable site in my experience) which calls it a '97. It's pretty light, just under 26 pounds. It appears complete and original except for the pedals, if I believe the BikePedia spec.

Walkaround video is here.

It's a 17.5" frame which is a shame because if it was one size larger, I'd be keeping it.

Plan for right now is to restore it and resell as a complete bike, eventually. Not in any rush.

Thanks for any input!

-kj-
 
Karate Monkey

Karate Monkey

Well-Known Member
I would post up some closer shots of the tube junctions, but it looks like a fairly standard frame from then. Probably straight gauge chromoly, or double-butted main tubes.

Frame wasn't explicitly built for cantilevers, so it probably has more "normal" MTB geometry, rather than way-out-there road geometry.

Clean, regardless.
 
kjarrett

kjarrett

Well-Known Member
STX-RC/XT mix, GripShift 600, RockShox Indy SL (I’ll be rebuilding it), Mavic 238s, Ritchey Logic Aheadset, StrongLight cranks (those alone are huge money on evilbay...)
 
Johnny Utah

Johnny Utah

Well-Known Member
It’s a 97, the Indy SL (which was lighter than that years Judy SL) looks like it has blown elstOmers (I think they were elastomer) 97 LX v brakes, which was the first year shimano V-brakes were offered in group sets other than XTR or XT. It sat right in the lineup where entry level changes to meet more of an intermediate rider.
 
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kjarrett

kjarrett

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Awesome info, thanks! Elastomers are definitely shot, need to get a rebuild kit. Honestly it’s a perfect bike for me other than being too small (been there, done that)…
 
Karate Monkey

Karate Monkey

Well-Known Member
kjarrett said:
Awesome info, thanks! Elastomers are definitely shot, need to get a rebuild kit. Honestly it’s a perfect bike for me other than being too small (been there, done that)…
Click to expand...

Have fun with working on it, but if your goal is to flip it (it's never going to be "valuable"), get a rigid Tange MTB fork; those forks are terrible by modern standards (as in: would you ride an entry-level RST through your local trails? If not, do not proceed trying to fix it up). The frame looks to have a 1-1/8 threadless headset, so cheap replacements (that don't look out of place) shouldn't be hard to source. Pull the fork extended all the way, measure the axle-to-crown distance, and then cut it by 20-30%. That should be the A-t-C of a replacement rigid fork.

If the cranks are original Stronglights (with the original rings), you're better off parting them out onto Ebay, then replacing with some nice parts-bin cranks. Sugino's from around that time are plentiful, and polish nicely. Sugino, at the time, occupied a place similar to SR Suntour does now...that is, they made cranks for everyone-and-their-uncle, and sometimes branded them for their clients. The paint they used to brand polishes off quite easily. A little bit of elbow grease could be used to wet-sand the paint off the cranks/follow with polishing. It takes ~2 hours to do a pair of cranks that far, or ~15 minutes to remove the branding (if you sourced something from Specialized, Girvin, etc).

I know you said you were interested in restoring it, but there's not much to fix--by looks of it--other than the fork. I know someone out there does cut/stock elastomers for those old forks, but the name escapes me at the moment.
 
kjarrett

kjarrett

Well-Known Member
Well, I buy bikes to part them out / flip, that was my plan originally. Only once before did I keep a flip as a second bike. This Bianchi is easily the nicest and most original / complete bike I've ever encountered, and I sort of feel bad about breaking it up. But at the end of the day, this is business, it's not personal. lol

Appreciate the info about making the bike rigid but there's no point as the frame is too small for me to ride, and I'd think it would command a higher price as originally spec'd, especially since it was designed and sold as a hardtail (according to BikePedia and other info I've found online).

I saw what those Stronglight cranks go for on eBay, it's one reason why I was attracted to this bike. That and the frame, which I know is crazy light and would probably bring pretty decent money. The fork, rebuilt (which I have the time to do and enjoy doing) could also be worth a few bucks, considering recent sales on eBay.

I haven't started looking for rebuild kits yet but would love the elastomer guy's info if you can recall it at some point.

So my plan was/is, to take my time tinkering with it (redo the fork, go over the drivetrain, clean it well, get it sorted) and maybe see if I could flip it as a whole bike to the right buyer. I've got plenty of other inventory and am in no rush, and the damn thing is just so good looking. But it's possible (very likely) no one would want it even then, and I'd end up parting it out anyway. Which is fine too.

That's the beauty of life with vintage MTBs & their parts. They are actually a pretty good investment. You can buy them, use (not abuse) them, then sell them for what you paid or more. What a world!
 
kjarrett

kjarrett

Well-Known Member
Karate Monkey said:
I know someone out there does cut/stock elastomers for those old forks, but the name escapes me at the moment.
Click to expand...
I think I found the guy: https://www.ebay.com/usr/kpreneurethane

Is that the person you were thinking of?

Saw a video on YouTube that mentioned him, and I've reached out for an elastomer I can cut down to size. Will give me some to sell or keep as backup, and save $$$ from the place selling them online for $55 a pop.
 
kjarrett

kjarrett

Well-Known Member
Wanted to share an update on this fork. The rebuild process was interesting to say the least but it's done and I learned a bunch. If anyone needs to rebuild a fork like this, message me, I can help. And, Fire Lord Jim, I don't have any excess elastomer material to share unfortunately, need to keep what I've got for other builds. So sorry!

 
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