In 1960 at the Olympics, Bud Thorpe, manager of the Olympic cycling team,
brought back a Cinelli road bike purchased at Chiappini's Bike Shop in Rome.
Supposedly, Chiappini was a Cinelli dealer. The bike sat in a rack in Oscar's
American Cyclery in San Francisco for years, even, it seemed after Bud died.
The problem was the wheel size. It had 650 tubular wheels, and Bud wanted
clinchers installed. Oscar could never find the rims to build the wheels. I don't
know how we figured it out, but it was decided that this was one of a few
bikes built for the Italian 100 km time trial team. I always wondered what
became of that bike. Anybody know?
Dave Staub
Orange, Ca