Jack wrote:
> Why no precise Cinelli dates in the 1950s and 60s? - Some vagueness is
> explained by overlaps in framebuilding supplies and things laying
> around before they were built up into bikes. But what about the
> questions of when they first appeared? I've heard '59 to '63 for intro
> of Bivalent hubs, '60 to '65 for aluminum bars, and also a good half
> decade on the Fischer BB and big vs small badges.
Andrea Cinelli has sent me documentation to display at le cirque that clearly states that the Bivalent hubs were officially launched at the 1963 trade show but had been used previously for at least two years. So both '59 and '63 are possibly correct. By the way, the hubs were NOT patented by Cino; they were designed by the father of a racer named Petrosemolo and the Italian National cycling team coach Rimedio. Andrea also confirms that the 1/A stem (made out of solid aluminum) was shown/used at the Rome Olympics in 1960, but that an industrial production was not up and running for quite a few years thereafter. He was a bit less sure about the bars but did seem to recall them being concurrent with the stem. He does not remember the 74 mm width BB at all. Lastly for the badges, he said they were used in a rather haphazard way and it is therefore completely impossible to date frames by simply using badge size.
> Many of the dates given in published articles have been contested here
> on the List, such as Gabe Konrad's article
> http://www.bicycletrader.com/
There are so many errors in this article that I would not count on it for anything.
> and "La Storia" from Cinelli
> http://www.petry.org/
> Fischer BB disappeared around 1965.
If you read the article again you will see that it actually says the Fischer BB disappeared around 1965. It says nothing about the 74 mm BB width.
> I'd really like to know more about the Italian team in the 1960
> Olympics, if it's true they were on SCs w/ all the goodies. Also, I
> remember Dave Staub was excellent on Cinelli specifics of the early
> 60s- did anyone ask him about these questions?
Cinelli did indeed make very special bikes for the Olympics because everybody in the industry hoped that the games would be the chance needed to relaunch the bicycle industry after a very tough period in the late 50's. I also have a photo of a 1960's era Cinelli track tandem used at the Villach 'worlds' in the 80's by what I take are either the Germans or Argentinians.
--
Steven Maasland
Moorestown, NJ