I have an interesting Cuevas in my possession at the moment, that I'd like to find out more about. It was supposedly custom built for a very small woman. Indeed, the frame has a 43cm seat tube, even though it uses 700c wheels. The frame uses a sloping top tube design, with a top tube length of 51cm, but the "effective" TT length may be slightly longer. I haven't really tried to figure out the geometry, but there is no toe-overlap, even with 170mm crank arms. The frame is too small for me to ride, but it would be interesting to learn more about it's handling characteristics. I've always heard that building really small frames can be challenging, and different builders seem to have different design perspectives. Looking at this frame, it seems obvious that Cuevas gave it a lot of thought.
I think that this frame was built around 1977, so it may be after Greg's direct association with Cuevas. Nevertheless, I like to learn more about this frame in particular, and also more about how builders approach building small frames.
Pictures of the bike can be seen here:
http://www.wooljersey.com/
Wayne Bingham Lovettsville, Virginia USA
On Sun, Dec 14, 2008 at 1:03 PM, Greg & Darlene Pitman
<gpit@ix.netcom.com> wrote:
> Looks as if I'm on a roll....two posts in one day.
>
> I have mentioned here in the past that I have a blog with a post describing my experience in the mid 70's working in a shop with Francisco Cuevas. If you haven't already seen it, you can see it here:
>
> http://cinelli.typepad.com/
>
> As a result of this post, I have received numerous comments from owners of Francisco's frames as well as acquaintances of his. One of the most recent comments was from his son Andres. This was followed by a personal e-mail from Andres asking me to call him.
>
> So I called and we spent about an hour talking about his dad, working at the shops in New York, and his family history in general. He told me a lot of details I never knew. He also spoke a bit about Fernando Cuevas (Francisco's grandson), Fernando's involvement in bike racing and his current struggle with cancer.
>
> But the most interesting part of the conversation centered around the fact that Andres has prepared a website that will give the whole story in great detail as well as a collection of photographs. He said he will publish it within the next 4 weeks, and has promised to e-mail me the link as soon as he does. When that happens, I will put a link on my blog, and post the link here for those who are interested.
>
> If you poke around in the blog, you will find some other cycling related stuff. My favorites are the photo essays I did on Chuck's Velo Rendezvous in 2004. Part 1 is here:
>
> http://cinelli.typepad.com/
>
> and Part 2 is here:
>
> http://cinelli.typepad.com/
>
> Greg Pitman
> Yucaipa
> California
> USA