I can practically pinpoint the birth of my obsession with vintage lightweig ht bicycles to the pusuit of a single component: The steel Cinelli track ba r. When I bought my first track bike a few years ago, I didn't know another so ul who rode and certainly had no idea of the passion I was about to develop for this wonderful hobby. I thought the bike (an early 80's Somec track b ike) was beautiful, I loved to be on it and I didn't know about and didn't care about much else. But over the years I had seen something on some of the NYC messenger's bikes that I had never seen in a bike shop: swoopy, shi ny, curvy and sexy chrome handlebars. My Somec came with dull alloy pista bars...quality, yes. But I knew that I HAD to have those bars I had seen a round. I finally came across a locked up bike with those elusive bars and discovered what it was that I had been yearning for. These were Cinelli to o! But with a different logo. What's up with that? "Vintage", huh? And so I began scouring the internet, asking questions in every bike shop I passed and starting conversations with every rider I saw on vintage steel. I eventually found Classic Rendezvous, built another bike. And another. A nd another. Buying and selling parts, accumulating knowledge and piles of p arts in the process...And the rest is history. At some point a couple of years ago, I had in my possession the 3 different models of steel Cinelli track bars (14, 18, 19*) and shot some pics which I thought might be useful to those wanting to do a side-by-side comparison of the bends. Perhaps this might be helpful to others who aren't familiar with the subtle differences. Especially since the ends of these bars have often been cut off by racers, making them more useful but harder to identi fy since that usually means the model stamp on the right flat is gone. Please have a look:
http://www.wooljersey.com/
*I have heard conflicting things about whether or not model 19 is a track b ar. The drop is much more shallow than the other models, there is more fla t on the tops and the flats are much longer. I believe I have seen these r eferred to as the "Madison" bend. Perhaps that explains the flat section n ear the stem, as riders would likely hold the tops of the bars during a "sl ing".
Matthew Bowne finally getting to some "projects" while home sick in Brooklyn, New York
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