I've seen some 531 frames with the word Reynolds lightly stamped on the steering tube near the fork crown. +GF+ stands for the swiss Georg Fischer company. They are best known for making couplers for streetcars and narrow gauge trains, but they made bottom bracket shells too. I don't know if Cinelli ever used 531.
Leonard Bulger Ann Arbor, MI
Kurt wrote:
Hi all, first post here. I love reading the mails, makes me feel like less of a geek knowing others share my "problem".
My question concerns a Cinelli Speciale Corsa- SN 5294 with a curious +CF+ perpindicular to the SN on the BB- I bought 11 years ago from a seller in the UK. It is likely a '70 or '71 judging by the dateless crankarms, hubs and the "Pat. 70" RD as well as the overall look. It has the clear remains of a 531 decal on the seat tube (no fork decals) in the usual place as well as braze-on fender mounting bosses on both stay bridges. I wrote listmember Mark Petry after finding his Cinelli registry online. Here was his reply:
"I have all 3 Cinelli catalogs and there is no mention of 531 in any of 'em. Also yours is the only "531" bike in the 50+ I've got registered.
Somebody stuck the decal on there. Look inside the steerer tube. Do you see rifling? It's columbus."
My question is could this bike in fact be of 531 as I suspect it is and is there any definitive way to tell short of filing off some metal, putting it in a mass spectrometer and looking for a telltale manganese line? There is no rifling on the steerer tube, but I thought rifling only applied to later SLX-SPX tubesets anyway. Also, anyone else have or seen a Cinelli frame with fender BOs on the stay bridges?
Thanks,
Kurt Sperry