Harvey,
It's now a virtual certainty that the bike is of late '50s origin. The lug treatment is that of an earlier Cinelli and Kevin Stimpson has informed me that the Cinelli Model B bikes never had an oil port on the bottom bracket. The oil port was on SCs only.
I'll be making some pictures available shortly so that the Cinelli mavens can vote on the date of manufacture.
Martin Needleman Annapolis, MD
HM & SS Sachs wrote:
>
> Martin Needleman wrote: <snip>
>
> BTW, with reference to a previous post asking for help in dating a
> Cinelli model B, I now suspect a late '50s - early '60s date despite the
> fact that the BB shell does not sport an oil port. Was this port
> _always_ present on pre 1965 Cinellis? The manufacturing date range for
> the Ambrosio "Champion" bar and stem is 1953-1964; Campagnolo Gran Sport
> derailleurs were manufactured from 1951 to 1963 and I can't imagine
> anyone installing an Agrati cottered steel three arm chainset and quill
> pedals on a post 1965 Cinelli.
> ------------------
> Martin, we lived in Providence (RI) from '68 - '72. I distinctly remember an acquaintance who bought a new "B" Cinelli the first year or two that we were there. It had cottered cranks, although I can't remember the brand. The reason that I remember the bike is that I helped recover it after it was stolen. sometime after the theft, I spotted a couple of kids carrying presta-valved sew-up wheels, as I recall it was heading away from the filing station where they had not been able to fill up... The authorities collected kids, wheels, and the bike (if memory serves). Funny, I'm sure about the cranks ("who would pay that much for a bike with cottered cranks????), and I think it was a deep red, but that and the low flange hubs are about all I remember. But, if it has both the Gran Sport rear and the "box" front (non-parallelogram), I think you're right that it from 63 or before.
>
> harvey sachs
> mcLean va