Citoyen du monde
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This bike was custom-built in 1977 for an Italian customer after he was measured up by Cino himself in the shop in Milan. Apparently the customer had some special type of relationship with Cino and was given the special treatment of a bike with custom geometry and built up with a number of components that were favoured by Cino. One can in fact clearly recognise Cino's hand in the build as it features a number of traits that were espoused by Cino but rarely seen on "production" Cinelli frames. The serial number defines it as being the 156th frame built in 1977, in other words towards the end of the year. In 1978, Cino sold his shares to Colombo, so this is one of the last "Cino" bikes built and since he was only rarely personally involved with custom builds, this is definitely one of the very last frame where his personal input can be seen.
The first feature is the adoption of slightly smaller diameter tubulars. These are larger than the 650 tubulars that became popular in triathlon races in the 80's and beyond, and are known as "ridotto" in Italy. With a bit of research I have been able to dig up about a dozen bikes that use this rim size, with all being Cinelli's, Pogliaghi's and Masi's from Milan. This slightly smaller rim size is especially interesting on smaller bikes as it allows one to play with geometry a bit more. Indeed, on this particular bike, Cino also specified another of his ideas: longer cranks. Even if this is nothing more than a 52 cm frame, it has 175 mm cranks, which for 1977 were very long (most frames up to 60 cm regularly used 170's back then). Normally this would not be possible without major toe clip overlap and/or odd geometry. As you can see, on this bike the clearance issue is none existent and the geometry works very well. Cino also emphasized that 700c wheel size was a necessity on rougher roads that existed in the past but by the 70's were not longer required. The last of Cino's own personal bikes featured longer cranks and "ridotto" wheels. They also featured the same first generation Phil Wood hubs like seen on this bike. Cino was presented to Phil Wood and was struck by the hubs and became the Italian distributor for them (It is rare to find first generation Phil hubs in the US, so imagine the rarity in Italy!) The bike also features the newly introduced Universal brake model that was introduced in 1977. I must say that I am quite impressed by the quality of the calipers. It also has the true super record seat post and drillium chainring. When I picked up the bike, it was accompanied both by a set of Campagnolo superleggeri as well as Cinelli M71 pedals. The colour used is apparetnly Cino's favourite and teh frame was accompanied by a matching Silca pump in the same vcolour. Lastly, it features the then still very new 1R stem (obviously with the old logo and the old black disc with the name Cinelli in front).
I find all of the above special features that perfectly express Cino's convictions to be very noteworthy and worthy of attention.
The first feature is the adoption of slightly smaller diameter tubulars. These are larger than the 650 tubulars that became popular in triathlon races in the 80's and beyond, and are known as "ridotto" in Italy. With a bit of research I have been able to dig up about a dozen bikes that use this rim size, with all being Cinelli's, Pogliaghi's and Masi's from Milan. This slightly smaller rim size is especially interesting on smaller bikes as it allows one to play with geometry a bit more. Indeed, on this particular bike, Cino also specified another of his ideas: longer cranks. Even if this is nothing more than a 52 cm frame, it has 175 mm cranks, which for 1977 were very long (most frames up to 60 cm regularly used 170's back then). Normally this would not be possible without major toe clip overlap and/or odd geometry. As you can see, on this bike the clearance issue is none existent and the geometry works very well. Cino also emphasized that 700c wheel size was a necessity on rougher roads that existed in the past but by the 70's were not longer required. The last of Cino's own personal bikes featured longer cranks and "ridotto" wheels. They also featured the same first generation Phil Wood hubs like seen on this bike. Cino was presented to Phil Wood and was struck by the hubs and became the Italian distributor for them (It is rare to find first generation Phil hubs in the US, so imagine the rarity in Italy!) The bike also features the newly introduced Universal brake model that was introduced in 1977. I must say that I am quite impressed by the quality of the calipers. It also has the true super record seat post and drillium chainring. When I picked up the bike, it was accompanied both by a set of Campagnolo superleggeri as well as Cinelli M71 pedals. The colour used is apparetnly Cino's favourite and teh frame was accompanied by a matching Silca pump in the same vcolour. Lastly, it features the then still very new 1R stem (obviously with the old logo and the old black disc with the name Cinelli in front).
I find all of the above special features that perfectly express Cino's convictions to be very noteworthy and worthy of attention.
