Greetings all, (I apologize in advance for the this maybe-too-long-post)
I recently subscribed to this digest at the recommendation of a couple of folks who are members, so I will first briefly introduce myself and then get into questions regarding a Cinelli restoration that has become an all consuming passion.
My name is Jay Sexton and I have been riding bicycles since forever. I have always had at least one bicycle even when I didn't own a car. Well, I pretended I didn't own the car...it didn't work anyway. Fast forward to the early 90's when I had one of the two jobs I ever considered a dream job. I started working at Ibis Cycles as a frame finisher, and when I left three years later I was a frame maker. Don't have my own shop set up yet, but some day. I currently have my own 13 bike wall of shame, half of which are projects waiting to be finished. 6 Schwinns from the late fifties to early sixties, a Whitcomb from the early 70's (found abandoned behind an empty house), the Ibis I built for myself, a Silk Ti almost together, a couple of unicycles including a 70's Schwinn Giraffe, and my current obsession the Cinelli. Enough about me and onto the Cinelli.
I need help indentifying the model, year made, and what components might have been on the bike when new. The # stamped on the B.B. shell is 152. It has Nuovo record cranks, front and rear derailluers, head set, bottom bracket, low flange hubs, and seat post. The rear der has a "patent 71" stamp. The front der is the no lip cage and no retainer pivot arm. Both the seat stay/brake bridge and the chainstay bridge are drilled and tapped. The bottom bracket shell has lube holes, one in the top and one one in the bottom of the shell. The fork has the sloping crown and is completely chromed, no paint. The dropouts have no eyelets. The drive side rear dropout has a small hole which I am told held the spring on the Grand Sport(?) derailluer ( Thanks to Harvey Sachs for that bit of info.--I haven't forgotten you Harvey. I will reply to your e-mail!) The man I bought the bike from "modernized" it with a full complement of braze ons including water bottle mounts in the down tube and had it repainted.
Just yesterday I was able to speak with the man who was the second owner and he had this to say about the bike: He bought it in 1970 from the original owner who was a racer and won it as a race prize in 1968 or 1969 (he thinks) in the San Jose area of Northern California. I am guessing the bike came from the Cupertino Bike shop since that is where most of the Cinelli's were from in Northern Cali, the race was in San Jose, and the guys (first and second owner) lived in San Jose. The racer took the parts off the Cinelli and put them on his race bike, and in successive winnings replaced the parts on the Cinelli with parts he won. When I got the bike it had the afore-mentioned parts in addition to yellow label Fiamme tubulars and Universal Super 68's. It was originally yellow and he doesn't remember any chrome on the lugs but it has been so long he isn't certain about that.
Somehow I lost the Fiamme rims and the Universal brakes, but I have been lucky enough to find a nice set of Super 68's and a set of NOS universal levers. I would love dearly to find a set of red or yellow oval label Fiamme tubular rims. Anybody out there have a set? I plan on removing all the braze ons and replacing with the original clamp on hardware. Cycle Art will do the repaint and head badge restoration. I plan on having it repainted the original color. One question I have is did chrome show up on Cinelli frames in a certain year? If my frame doesn't have chrome lugs --and every photo of a Cinelli seems to have chrome lugs-- would it be damaging to the frame to chrome them? I have scraped off the paint on a couple of the lugs and I see no chrome underneath.
So... to close for now, my main question is, can anybody help me with finding out when my Cinelli was made based on the number, which is # 152?. I want to restore this bike as close as possible to what it may have been originally, so any help would be GREATLY appreciated. You can e-mail me or perhaps we can talk on the phone. This is a subject that is dear to me right now. I want to get this bike together by spring. Thanks for the space.
Jay Sexton
Sonoma County , CA