29 INCH MOUNTAIN BIKES

Though I'm not 100% sure, the little research I've done leads me to believe this is the model Bianchi I purchased in the early 1980's. (This image comes from a 1982 Bianchi catalog that I used to have; I purchased this photocopied facsimile off the Web after instantly recognizing the cover graphic.)

Getting this bike was a big deal for me. It replaced the dirt-brown, second-hand 10-speed that I'd been tooling around on and was a bona fide road bike — with a pedigree, no less! For several years beforehand I'd been mesmerized by the brief coverage given to the Tour de France on ABC's Wide World of Sports, and knew the name Bianchi well: it was sexy, European, and conveyed a sense of Old World craftsmanship and attention to detail. (No matter that this bike was most likely built and assembled in Taiwan...) The one regret I had was that the bike wasn't Celeste Green, Bianchi's trademark color; I just couldn't afford the models in that price strata. This one was cobalt blue.

My parents took me (most likely on my instruction) to a bike shop in Naperville on the corner of S. Mill and W. Jackson, just across the street from Centennial Beach. (The shop has long since been converted into something else.) I recall it being a rather serious occasion, with Dad perhaps asking if I was sure about wanting to go through with the purchase. $399 comes to mind when I try to remember the price.

Funny thing is, for an upgrade on this order of magnitude, there's not a whole lot I remember about the bike aside from riding circuits around Blackwell forest preserve in Warrenville. I couldn't have had it for more than 3 or 4 years, though, because in March of 1986 I replaced it with the Fuji Opus III, when I'd signed up to take a cycling "class" at North Central College. Connie Gates had also signed up for the course and, being that she didn't have a decent bike to ride — and was the cutest girl in the class — I let her borrow the Bianchi. (I had outgrown it by then, anyway.) The class would be sent out on rides around Naperville and I clearly remember sticking with Connie once to teach her the basics of shifting gears, etc. We were on E. Diehl road when she said she was thirsty; rather than reach down to grab the water bottle, she stopped the bike on the side of the road first before taking a drink. I just didn't get it.

That was my last semester at NCC, and after that time I didn't see Connie (or the Bianchi) ever again. Several times I contemplated going over to her house in Downers Grove to retrieve my bike, but in the end it just didn't seem worth the effort or emotional awkwardness of the situation so I just let it go.

ASSIGNMENT: KHS Catalog Action shoot
LOCATION: Sequoia National Forest
RIDER: Kenny Straub
PHOTOGRAPHER: Chris Hatounian