David Bilenkey wrote:
>
> So the questions that follow:
>
> How closely did the other handle bar manufacturers follow suit?
>
> Is it safe to say then that any bike prior to 1963 must have had a steel
> bar?
>
> I have a 1965 Viking with alloy GB bars and stem, and a 1964 Legnano Gran
> Premio with Legnano branded Ambrosio Champion alloy bars and stem, so I'm
> guessing everybody jumped into making alloy bars right quick.
>
> Confirm or deny?
There was an aluminum bike back around the turn of the century (1900s)
and there were aluminum bars and stems starting around the mid-1930s.
Ambrosio aluminum bars and stem in the early 1950s in Italy, etc.
>From the Cinelli web site <www.cinelli.it>:
"Others remember him (Cino Cinelli) for having given modern cycling its
first aluminium handlebar." I view this as clearly a "company
puff-piece" propaganda statement with no basis in fact. I remember
Cinelli (the company) also claimed to have invented the leather toe
strap in the early 1950s!
Chuck Schmidt Soouth Pasadena, CA
.