Sunday, March 18, 2012

BIANCHI - World's oldest bi-cycle manufacturer


Edoardo Bianchi (1865 - 1946) -  an Italian,  started designing and manufacture of bi-cycles in the year 1885. Bianchi was the first to introduce same size tyres in the front and rear and in 1889 introduced Dunlop pneumatic tyres. In 1895 , he was called on to supply bicycle and train Queen Margharita on bi-cycle riding . This resulted in Bianchi designing the first "Ladies Bi-cylcle".

Bianchi is to be pronounced as bee-ahn-kee.


In 1897, Bianchi expanded in to manufacture of Motorcycles and in 1898 designed the first Motor car. The first motor car named Bianchina was 2 bi-cycles welded together with a De-dion engine mounted in between , driving the rear wheels.




From 1901 onwards Bianchi cars became advanced in terms of engine sizes and transmission types. A 1901 Bianchi car -




From 1914 onward , the Bianchi cars were named as S- series and one of the famous car was the 1937 Bianchi Tipo S9 -




In 1955, Bianchi was taken over by Fiat & Pirelli and integrated in to its Lancia operations. The brand was renamed as Autobianchi. Fiat used Autobianchi to test new technologies and concepts and later on introduce it on Fiat cars. The famed F.I.R.E engine was tested on Autobianchi cars. Fiat sold the Autobianchi cars as Autobianchi in Italy and as Lancia overseas.. Some of the well known Autobianchi cars were - Autobinachi A112 & Autobianchi Y10



The last of the Autobianchi cars were produced in 1995.


The Bianchi & Autobianchi  Logo -

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