I have ridden this bike and it is a unique and valuable piece of cycling history. Standard disclaimers of course.
Title of item: Pino Moronni Campagnolo Campy Cinelli Bicycle
Seller: vsprocket
Starts: Nov-13-03 18:21:39 PST
Ends: Nov-23-03 18:21:39 PST
Price: Starts at $1.00
To bid on the item, go to:
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Item Description: Pino Moronni was a bicycle genius who never made it big, and always wanted to. He moved from Italy to the Detroit area in the late 1950s, and somehow managed to never get a terrific grasp of English in all that time. He spoke fast and thought faster, and out of his brain came many innovative parts, most of which were ahead of their time then, and many are that way still now. His weakness, or at least his Achilles heel, was that he could bring a product along 95 percent of the way, but often not all the way; and he could make one at a time, but couldn't make the connections to get the thing mass produced. His most famous and accessible widget was his q/r skewer. I think Andy Hampsten rode those when he won the Giro in '87, but don't hold me to it. In any case, this bicycle used to be his. I bought it from him in 1994 for $1800. He told me (at least I think he told me) that he rode it in a cyclo-cross race in 1938. Maybe he meant he rode a bike LIKE it then, because the frame looks more recent to me. But it's clearly a Pino frame, with the brazed-in straws he added to increase torsional strength in the thinwalled tubing. And, it has the long chainstays and short top tube that he not only preferred, but insisted on. It's a "cambio corsa" bike, referring to the rear derailleur, Campy's first model. There were variations of these, but this is one of them. The rear dropouts are the Paris-Roubaix model required with this derailluer; and the hubs match and work with it, too. If you're familiar with this system, you know the spiel; and if you aren't, that's all fine too, but probably you aren't interested in this bike (or shouldn't be). The bike is exactly as Pino sent it to me. Nothing changed. It's not your ultra-period correct "cambio corsa" bike, but it was made and owned and ridden by the one and only Pino Moronni, and that makes up for any mish-mash of parts.
Here are details on the frame and parts. 56.5 cm c-c, 54 cm TT, 73 degree head tube, 74.5 degree seat tube. 167.5 Super Record cranks 48x53 rings, Bottom bracket Campy type (NOT Campy), SR short reach brake, SR brake levers pantographed with Ciocc logo, Nuovo Record f/d, NR front shift lever, unknown alloy headset, Gipiemme post and track pedals, Campagnolo Cambio Corsa shift mechanism, FB rear hub, Everest 4 speed freewheel 16-23 with Ambrosia Crono tubular rim, Mavic 501 front hub with MA40 clincher rim, San Marco Rolls saddle, Cinelli 1A 120 mm stem Oval logo, Cinelli 64-42 single groove bars
===================================================== Mark Petry 206.618.9642 Beautiful Bainbridge Island, WA mpetry@bainbridgeisland.net
===================================================== "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has limits"
Albert Einstein =====================================================