A clue to the overstock situation at Cinelli is the fact they don't have a full size run in the stems. Try finding the Cinelli made Street Rats line of urban bikes in the US. Supposedly J and B are the exclusive distributor for Cinelli bikes, but I have yet to see one in a bike shop or on the web, or them advertised in J and B flyers.
And yes, Cinelli and TTT are part of the same company Gruppo, which is an umbrella company for Cinelli, TTT, and Columbus. But the Columbo family has their fingers in a lot of bike companies in Italy. Same with Selle Italia. Same with SelleRoyal (who owns Brooks). There is a surprising amount of shared financial interests among a lot of Italian bike companies.
sorry to shatter everyones myths....
Tom Martin
Oakland CA
> In a message dated 10/27/2005 9:54:28 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
\r?\n> haxixe@gmail.com writes:
\r?\n>
\r?\n> << Has the 1A been out of production long? I've seen them occasionally
\r?\n> offered in the usual bike catalogs within the last five years (longer?
\r?\n> Doesn't seem like it) I think. >>
\r?\n>
\r?\n> I am not absolutely certain but I would be willing to bet that there are a
\r?\n> bunch of those 1A stems still in bins in a back corner of their warehouse. I am
\r?\n> also willing to bet that they are not "in production."
\r?\n>
\r?\n> Because of this surplus, they are included in the catalog. The clamping
\r?\n> diameter is the key bit of info. Cinelli switched to 26.0 and converted it's
\r?\n> entire
\r?\n> line to that standard so it is really unlikely that someone in that factory
\r?\n> (TTT? Supposedly Cinelli & TTT are all made in the same place) is cranking out
\r?\n> old school 26.4s.
\r?\n>
\r?\n> Also, just because a product (there are other "albatrosses" in that catalog)
\r?\n> is listed, does not mean that it is really available for sale through
\r?\n> distributors/importers. They buy from Cinelli only what they think dealers will
\r?\n> buy.
\r?\n> So much, even a majority, of that stuff shown on the Cinelli web site will be
\r?\n> hard or impossible to actually buy......
\r?\n>
\r?\n> Dale Brown
\r?\n> Greensboro, NC USA