[CR]How I Met Cino Cinelli, Part 2

(Example: Framebuilders:Mario Confente)

To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
From: "Michael Allison" <banjodoc@earthlink.net>
Date: Tue, 15 Nov 2005 12:00:04 -0500
cc: Richard Bulissimo <rbulissimo-bike@yahoo.com>
Subject: [CR]How I Met Cino Cinelli, Part 2

The coolest thing about those first Cinellis I imported was the BB oil

port with a spring-loaded cap. It didn\u2019t make much sense to me but it

was unique. I was also impressed that each frame had its own serial number. The chromed steel bars and badged stem were beautiful, too, but

very heavy. So I searched for replacement English or French aluminum bars.

When other cyclists saw my new Cinelli it seemed like everybody wanted

one. I was now in the bike importing business and ordered another group

of five bikes the following year. Sometimes a potential customer would

ask to ride my bike around Central Park. This was never a problem because I knew the riders. But one day a friend took my bike for a ride

and returned a short while later with my broken and bent Cinelli. He had rear-ended a car stopped for light because he was looking down at the gears. He paid me without complaint and I gave him the bike. So one

the five in my next order to Cinelli & C. was a new bike for myself, this time painted all silver.

The following year I went to Europe for the first time and planed to visit the Cinelli bike company. I wrote that I would stop by sometime in late July. That summer I had gotten a job to lead a group of young teenage (14-15) boys and girls on an American Youth Hostels cycling tour in Europe. I had been a long time hangers on at the New York AYH headquarters on West 8th Street near MacDougal Street. Since I wasn\u2019t

getting paid, I worked out a deal where I would have two weeks on my own once everyone returned to New York. AYH also gave me a little money

for the extra time and a plane ticket home.

The tour route was completely booked ahead at hostels and small

hotels. So all I had to do was follow the script and take care of the money and the group. We flew on a chartered flight (there were several

other groups) to Gatwick Airport in London and rented new English three

speed (Sturmey Archer gears) bicycles. After a few days in London, we headed out into the English countryside through Kent and other shires to Dover and the ferry to Cherbourg France. That first tour went south

along the Atlantic coast and then across southern France to Switzerland. Once in Zurich, the bikes were shipped back to the renter

in England, and we continued on by train through Switzerland and Italy

down to Rome.

After Rome, the group flew to Paris, where we spent a week sightseeing. Finally everyone was on the plane to New York and I got on

a train to Milan (probably the only northern Italian city the group didn\u2019t visit). About a day later, after I recovered from a ten-hour (12?) trip and two time zones, I set out for Via Egidio Folli 45. My recollection is that it was outside the central part of the city of Milan. From the outside, the place looked like a country estate of some old family. It had a high yellow brick wall with an ornate wrought-iron

gate at the main entrance. I pushed it open and walked into a small courtyard. There was a small brick house on one side and what looked like a carriage house/garage on the other and trees everywhere.

I entered the house and was greeted by a petite woman seated at a desk. Behind her, on the wall, hung a large photograph of a man on a track bike looking straight at the camera. It could be only one rider.

\u201cHello, welcome to the Cinelli company,\u201d she greeted me in perfect

English. I introduced myself and recalled my transactions and letters to the company. \u201cYes, I remember you. I\u2019m Heidi Cinelli.\u201d Her first name certainly wasn\u2019t Italian. Years later I would learn she was the

daughter of Seiber, the Swiss bicycle maker. She left the room briefly

and returned with Cino.

\u201cThis is signore Cinelli,\u201d she introduced him. He was imposing, more

than six feet tall and slightly over weight. He had intense eyes and dark hair slicked straight back. \u201cHello,\u201d he said with an outstretched hand, \u201cwelcome to Milano.\u201d He had an air of confidence and, it impressed me that he didn\u2019t give his name. Hey, I was a twenty-something boyish man. Signore Cinelli said something like \u201ccome,

I will show you the shop.\u201d

We left the house, walked to the carriage house/garage across then way

and into a side door. It was a small bicycle factory. He said something

in Italian to one of the men near the door then showed me the workshop.

It was a small production line with workstations. There were several craftsmen, each working on a different part of the frame: one brazed forks, another brazed the main triangle, another cut and mitered tubes,

and still another filed completed frames. At each station, wooden racks

filled with their labor. There were completed and half completed bicycles all over the place in what seemed like organized chaos. When we went to each station, Cinelli spoke to the workman, then to me in English, explaining what was happening. (to be continued)

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