Matthew, The 1-Rs will not work if you don't start with a Cinelli bar with a fresh, compatible knurling. The knurling on the plate in the stem must mesh dir ectly with that on the bar. That is, the knurlings aren't just there too add friction or grip, they really must mesh like teeth of two gears. If the knurling on the bar is marred, it won't work. It's like most modern seatposts, where you can only change the angle in discrete i ncrements.
If you use an older bar with the three rings of knurling, or the one wi th coarser knurling, or if it's a later bar with no knurling in the middle, it won't work. Anything non-Cinelli likely won't work unless it is an e xact knockoff (few were even the correct diameter, let alone with the same knurl). Start with the right bar, grease the crap out of the binder hard ware*, set it at the correct angle, and crank the heck out of it with a goo d wrench. Then you leave it alone and hope it dosen't squeek. Hope yo u get the angle right because futzing with it invites trouble.
As you said, it's a sexy setup, and as you've discovred, it's a silly setup and technologically inferior (or perhaps excessive). Even pro teams w ith an infinite supply of Cinelli crap tended to only use them sometimes... and evidently less on the cobbles. No matter how many fresh bars and stems you have, they are still inconvenient and sometimes creaky. That said, they can easily be made to hold, but if they slip once the bar is toast. Hardly practical for anybody.... but I love the way they lo ok and have a three or four myself.
I think one benefit of the design, besides good looks and the obvious hu ge aero advantage (joke) is that the hole in the front of the stem was an enrty point for boring out the extension. That might have made it light er, or at least made the extension more of a tube than a bar, which in theo ry is a metter distribution of material.
* some say that greasing the knurl of the bar and stem eliminated squeeks, though Cinelli recommended against it. It's probably okay to do, since i t really isn't a frictional coupling, but more of a gear engagement... at y our own risk of course.
Tom Dalton
Bethlehem, Pennsylvania USA