Ah, a beautiful story. Rob and I were riding buddies back in our college days in Ann Arbor, and Rob taught me much of what I know about fixing bikes. In fact, I'm still using a pair of Hawks fabricated wheels on my restored Trek. I have many fond memories of that exact bike, eating Cinelli dust on a sunny Sunday afternoon along Huron River Drive and sitting at the rest stop admiring the old style decals and chromed lug work. That bike was probably the first "classic" super bike to which I had close access, and is no doubt responsible for much of my current interest in classic bikes (addiction, my wife would say). I never have gotten a Cinelli myself, but it's on the list. Congrats on bringing her home, Rob.
Tom Adams
Kansas City
My friend had said to start looking for Santa in a Brown suit. I had the tracking number, and I was tracking. The package left the midwest on the 8th. The optimistic UPS delivery calculator said the package would be delivered on the 14th but it didn't make it to California until late that day. I tracked until it was on the delivery van. I had taped instructions to leave the package with a neighbor on the front door of my house. Naturally, we had high winds and my wife found the note in the street when she came home. The UPS note that they couldn't deliver sure stuck to the door just fine. One try down. On monday the delivery van showed up just before my wife returned home. Two tries down. A new note on the door and the third time pays for all, no? Yes. Success. Just as my wife hit the driveway up the hill comes the UPS van chugging away. The driver has the gall to give her grief for not being home the other two days. Harumpf. So the box is waiting for me when I get home at 5:30. I've never seen some much bubble pack and foam tube strips on anything in my life. It takes time to reveal the contents, and now the garage floor is strewn with scraps of the bubble pack and used tape. But there it is. My Cinelli. I can say mine, after all, I had owned it once before from 1977 to 1993. I was the fourth owner and now I'm the sixth owner of the bike as well. I had first bought the bike from the shop manager of Allied Cycle in Detroit, MI when I worked there in the late 70s. He was getting married, wanted the cash and the bike was just a little too large for him anyway. I had thoughts (silly ones) of getting into racing. He told me he didn't know how old the bike was, probably early 70s, maybe late 60s but he stressed early 70s. I rode the bike as often as I could which wasn't often enough. Working 60 hour weeks in the bike shop made that hard, and the midwest climate eliminated much of the year anyway. The only thing I changed on the bike was to put a frame pump on, and swap out the rear deraileur with a newer, but used campy NR. Changing the pump meant removing the campy pump crown but that revealed the Reynolds decal. I don't know for how long, but Cinelli used Reynolds 531 for the tubes. My brother managed to lose the rear deraileur, and the pump crown didn't come back with the bike this time. Before I got the bike, changes had been made as well. The third owner gave the aluminum fenders to a mechanic as payment for doing an overhaul on the bike. Also, the brakes, rumored to be Weinmann centerpulls, were swapped for newer Wienmann Carrera side pulls. A Brooks pro saddle was on the bike, but I had kept that and am riding it still on a 1982 Trek. I don't know if that was original, probably not. In 1993, almost a year after moving to the Bay Area, I traded the bike to a good friend of mine for a Bridgestone mountain bike. I hadn't ridden the bike in several years at that point, and with the hills around here I didn't see that I would ride it much. I wanted to try out mountain biking, heck it is a great area for it. My friend was doing a little collecting and was interested in doing the restoration that I didn't think I had the money for. He became owner of a bike shop though, and had kids of his own so the Cinelli project took a back seat to other important things (restoring an old bike is peanuts, insignificant compared to seeing your kids learn to walk, read, ride bikes, tell jokes). I like to think that the bike was in the family still during those years. It was a little private joke between us when I would ask about the progress. About a year ago I had suggested that if he was interested, I would like to buy it back, and when we talked during the holidays at years end we agreed to the transaction. Last night, I checked Mark Petry's Cinelli registry, but was stymied in trying to date the bike even though now I had the serial number at hand. I sent him email asking if he could help date the bike any better, and I also sent mail to Cinelli. Who knows if that will help. Then, SMACK (sound of palm hitting forehead). Doh! (I have these experiences often). Idiot. I have the bike, there are other ways? The thing is campy all over. I get the front wheel, remove the lock nut, wipe away the grease. '65'. This morning on my ride to work I realized I could have checked the crank arms too, but I'm not sure if Campy dated the crank arms that way, back in the 60s. But the hubs are original. The fact that the BCD is 155 (the rings are 47/50. Man that will hurt on the hills around here) and that the BB shell has oil fittings on the top and bottom of the shell suggest the bike might have been older than 1970 anyway. I wish I could say that the frame is pristine, but it isn't. The clamps for the cable guides on the brakes and the shifters have left marks. There are a few touched up nicks all around. The stays were chromed originally, but above the drop outs they have gone past being dulled. The chromed lugs are mostly clean except under the seat lug, there is a little rust. The top tube has the paint worn away down to the primer and there are a few places where rust has made the paint seem cracked. I know this bike isn't the rarest of the rare, but having owned it once and ridden it many miles, it has huge sentimental value to me. When I rode it the most, it was a carefree, quite happy time of my life. I was 21, 22 years old. I was working in a bike shop. I had no money, but then I had no car payments (I drove a $175 1967 VW bug), and only had to save enough money for college. Heck, I could pay for a full term of credits with $400 at MSU, even though it was a lot more than the $11.50 per credit I paid at Schoolcraft College. So the bike has a little rust and isn't so shiny now. When I let my beard grow, I have two bright white patches that would give me away if the bald patch, crows feet and spare tire didn't already. Now, I can ride the bike on rides with my kids. I'm happy.
rob hawks
richmond, ca