South Salem Cycleworks museum bikes: Bianchi EL-OS 62cm bike

Hi, Nate Taylor here. Please reach out to me at nate@sscycleworks.com for inquiries on parts availabilities and shipping estimates.

South Salem Cycleworks Museum:
Owner Michael Wolfe’s 62cm 1998 Bianchi EL-OS Bicycle

Owner Michael Wolfe’s 62cm 1998 Bianchi EL-OS Bicycle

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Columbus EL-OS lugged tubeset.
Mondonico fork w/fork crown
Pump peg and chain hanger.
62cm center-to-center
59cm top tube
19cm head tube
41cm chainstay
100cm wheelbase
7cm bottom bracket drop
1” threaded steel steerer
22.5 lbs weight with pump and pedals
Built in Reparto Corse, Bianchi’s race department in 1998, the last of the top-tier Bianchis built with lugs.
Serial # 63F20202

Components mounted on the frameset:

San Marco Rolls saddle with Titanium rails
Campagnolo C-Record 27.2 seatpost
Campagnolo Chorus 9-speed ergoshifters
Campagnolo Record front braze-on derailleur
Campagnolo Record square taper 175mm crankset with 39/53 chainrings
Campagnolo Chorus English threaded 102mm bottom bracket
Time Equipe Mag pedals
Campagnolo Record C9 chain
Campagnolo Record rear derailleur
Campagnolo Record 9-speed 13-23 cassette
SunTour SL brake calipers
Front wheel: 1998 Campagnolo Record 32-hole front hub radially laced on to a Mavic Open Pro Blue front rim with DT Revolution 15/17/15 spokes and DT 7005 alloy nipples.
Rear wheel: 1998 Campagnolo Record 32-hole rear hub laced on to a Mavic Open Pro Blue rear rim with DT Revolution 14/17/14 spokes laced cross-3 on the drive side, 15/17/15 spokes laced cross-2 on the non-driveside, all with 7005 alloy nipples.
Campagnolo Record quick releases
Rox rim strips
Michelin Airstop threadless tubes
Vredestein Fortezza TriComp 700c x 23mm tires
Campagnolo Record 1” threaded headset
3T Record 13cm stem
3T Competition bar, 46cm outside-to-outside.
Cinelli Cork handlebar wrap
Avocet 50 Altimeter
Elite Ciussi cages
Zefal HPX 4 frame pump
Custom seatbag

About the bike:

Marco Pantani won both the Giro d’ Italia and the Tour de France riding for Bianchi that year, 1998. I was a Bianchi dealer and delighted with the resurgence in interest of Bianchi as a result of Pantani’s success.

Portland used to have a show where local bike shops displayed their wares, and Lakeside Bicycles in Lake Oswego attended with a wide array of Bianchi’s, including an EL-OS. It was a mystical, passionate mix of celeste and Columbus’s top tier tubeset. Still lugged with plenty of chrome – who could ask for more?

But Pantani was riding aluminum, and other big names like Cippolini and Berzin, were riding titanium Bianchi’s. I chose a MegaTi frameset, but that’s a different story.

One of my customers, Paige Anderson, wanted a high-end bike, and we bought him this frameset. We then bought a discounted Bianchi that was missing the derailleur housing stop on the chainstay to strip the parts and build the EL-OS. He’d ordered a 70th Anniversario Mondonico, but wanted something to ride until its arrival.

He built the Mondonico and rode it for a short time, before returning to the shop with the Bianchi EL-OS and his Bianchi San Remo, a light-duty touring bike. He wanted to trade both of them for a Torelli Gran Sasso, stating that having ridden the Mondonico, life was too short to ride anything other than something built to Torelli’s standards.

Pantani had been convicted of using EPO on the final stage of the ’99 Giro d’ Italia, where he was in the lead. Of course, Lance Armstrong won the Tour de France that year, but it was a “miracle” story of someone surviving cancer, and little was hinted at his doping, verified some 10 years later.

I still had a lot of Bianchi’s in the shop, but Torelli was selling at a 3 to 1 ratio. My outside Bianchi rep noticed that half the showroom floor was occupied by Torelli, and demanded that I add more Bianchi bikes. I told him that the floor was shared equally by both Torelli and Bianchi, but the Torelli’s were outselling the Bianchi’s, and it didn’t make sense to stock more Bianchi.

One of my employees ordered a Bianchi for himself without notifying me. It arrived unannounced, and there was not an employee discount. I inquired of Bianchi, as was informed that I was no longer a dealer! It turned out that they’d mailed the notice to the former address in the Sunnyslope Mall, from whence we’d moved some 5-6 years ago. The line was given to a mountain bike-oriented store downtown, where after their doing a large preseason the first year, two years later discounted the Bianchi’s heavily and closed them out.

I had built and ridden a Bianchi 110th Anniversary TSX in blue for a sunny-day commute bike, but, celeste was the color of Bianchi, and as I was now, once again, a Bianchi dealer. I built the EL-OS for myself, selling the TSX. Paige attempted to increase his like for the Bianchi EL-OS by replacing the unicrown Nivachrome fork with a Mondonico fork utilizing a fork crown. He said it had improved the ride, but still failed to meet the quality of his 70th Anniversario Mondonico, also made of EL-OS.

I was puzzled by two Italian made frames of the same material having different ride qualities, and asked Bill McGann about this. He replied “Half of the ride quality of a frame comes from the hands of the builder”. After riding the Bianchi, and comparing it to my 70th Anniversario Mondonico, I had to agree that the Bianchi wasn’t as much a pleasure to ride.

It became a novelty ride, as it was the last year that Bianchi used lugs in building frames, and as the dominance of carbon fiber frames became the standard. There are Pantani fans out there still, and celeste stirs their interest, as it does mine. Fausto Coppi, possibly the most winning racer ever (he spent WWII in a prison camp), and Gino Bartali, both rode Bianchi’s to notable feats and accomplishments. Celeste Bianchi’s will always have a passionate place in history.

Photos of the 1998 62cm Bianchi EL-OS bicycle: