CriticalThought

I'm feeling extremely fortunate lately when it comes to neat "finds". I recently saw this pop up for sale in my neighborhood just a few hours after it was posted and I jumped all over it as I don't think the seller knew much about it.

The story I was told was that the seller was the second owner and had been gifted it after it had hung on the first owners wall for decades. The seller used it as a "campus bike" and stopped riding after graduation, putting it in a "old dusty but covered and dry shed" for years.

I guess it being a daily campus bike explains the turned up bars and the "enhanced" brake levers (thankfully the original weren't ditched!). It also explains the hilariously incongruous "new brake pads".

I don't know much about Cinellis so would love any additional info on this bike. From what little research I did, it sounds like it is a pretty rare Cinelli (if not extremely high end or particularly fancy) in that it was only made for a single year, 1989?

So it seems like it's a 1989 Cinelli, a Mens Sana In Corpore Sano made from Columbus Cromor tubes. It has a chrome drive-side chain stay, chrome Cinelli dropouts, kind of be-winged fork bridge caps, a Cinelli stem, bars, and some other nice details.

It looks like it has an absolutely complete Campagnolo Croce d' Aune gruppo... including the delta brakes! They're filthy but looks like they're in awesome condition underneath the dust and dirt.

It also has a really nice (and very dirty) set of true spinning Campagnolo Omega Strada Hardox aero rims. What an absolute score!

I just had to share. If anyone knows anything about this model please let me know. Thanks!

tkamd73 

Worth it alone for the Delta brakes, assuming you didn’t pay too much, and it fits.
Tim

smd4

Oh yeah, you scored. Don't know much about the bike itself, but it displays the typical Cinelli craftsmanship of that era, especially in the lugwork and the stay and fork tips. That's a beautiful bike and I'm sure will ride like a dream.

repechage

Sad the cheap swap out brake pads and blocks... a mechanic with little regard.

this is one of those subordinate models of that era. Still gets the Cinelli branding, kind of a B line frame.

CriticalThought

Thanks all.

repechage All is not lost when it comes to the brake pads (both figuratively and literally!). As I was heading off the seller tossed me a ziplock bag and a couple of pedals!

Turns out someone along the way had a conscience and saved all of the Campagnolo parts, both the original mint unridden Campagnolo Croce d' Aune pedals and also the original Campagnolo Delta Brake pads, holders, wheel guides and associated hardware.

They even included the "must have" 3.5mm allen key! So yeah... incredibly fortunate all around on this one.

Some more photos...

smd4

Wow. You even got the toe strap buttons! This will clean up into a show-stopper.

Soody

awesome find
garish in all the right ways

i would throw the delta brakes in the trash

rccardr 

Have owned several of those, very nice riding framesets. They were made in 1989 and 1990 and sold, I believe, as framesets not complete bikes.
If I recall correctly, one of mine came with full 8speed Tricolor.
Pretty sure they are Chromor tubing so, as you mentioned, not a high end frame.
I liked mine!

panzerwagon 

My understanding is similar to yours: entry-level, sold as a frameset but only made in 1989. Based on the dozen or so examples I've encountered over the past 25 years, the groupsets have been all over the place. You definitely struck the jackpot with yours!

I've owned mine since around 1995, purchased from the original owner. Mine came with a mix of parts. Gray anodized Triomphe crankset, C-record brake levers and gran sport calipers, Gipiemme headset/seat-post/front hub, campy strada ox clinchers. The original owner told me the bike shop had replaced the Triomphe/Victory drivetrain with indexed Shimano 1050 (gray anodized to match the crankset). The rear campy rim was re-laced to a Shimano UG 7-speed hub, a 1050 RD and matching downtube shifters completed the menagerie.

The Columbus chromor tubing might not be high-end for the time, but it rides like a champ. Rode it almost into the ground before I had any sense about preserving these bikes. No dents, but scratched all over (sorry, heavily patina'd). I used to pull a kids trailer attached to the chainstay for crying out loud! It's currently dismantled and waiting patiently in my project queue. I plan to keep the original paint, of which I'm quite fond, and continue the parts menagerie: replace the shimano parts with a mix of chorus RD and C-record downtube shifters, just for the masochistic pleasure of getting that to work

smd4

Any Cinelli frame--sold as a frameset only--would put it far beyond my understanding of "entry-level." An entry-level Cinelli, perhaps, but that's the equivalent of just about anybody else's high-end complete road bike.

rccardr 

For reference:

Stock colors with Tricolor group; I added the consumables and the Euro-style tricolor non-aero levers. Should have cut the cable housing by a couple inches.

Another one, this refinished by Tom Kellog at Spectrum and as ridden at Eroica 2016. Super Record with SR Apex crankset.

smd4

Amazing looking bikes there, rccardr.

CriticalThought

Thanks for the perspectives smd4 Soody panzerwagon ... and wow, thanks for the pics rccardr ...fantastic and inspiring.

So here's my conundrum (and it's a good one to have, I know...). I picked up this Cinelli for just a few hundred dollars (I know!) and it's a little too small for me. I'll ride it a bit to see if I can get comfortable enough to want to ride it, but when I saw it advertised what really caught my eye was the full group set. Rare to see that these days it seems.

I have a really nice 1989 Concorde Aquila fame in SLX with the PDM "Sean Kelly" color scheme. It's gorgeous and more my size and I've been waiting to find a gruppo that I could set it up with. I have a Miele Latina with a mint Campagnolo Athena gruppo but it's such a beautiful and good handling bike (and it's my size) that I haven't been able to bring myself to strip it of it's minty Campy-ness. Enter the Cinelli.

Not like I have time to perform an organ transplant these days... but if I imagine the mishmash of parts currently on the Concorde on the Cinelli frame, I think I could bring myself to ride it around like that for a while (accumulating hipster points!!) at least until I have time to refinish it as it deserves (or sell it). A bike ridden is better than I bike unridden I think... and the Concorde would look killer with the new gruppo, especially with the matching Campagnolo Deltas. Decisions, decisions....

himespau 

Great find.

I had an almost identical Concorde Aquila (mine was a 62 cm and had 1989 World Cup Team decals on it) until I got rear ended by a car at a stoplight. Loved that bike.

CriticalThought

himespau Out of curiosity, how was you Concorde set up and did you buy it new? Was it all Campagnolo? Sorry to hear about the accident. Sounds heartbreaking. Glad you survived even if the Concorde didn't.

bamboobike4

+1

I've not seen any "entry level" Cinelli, though I've done my best to reduce good ones to that....

Pinarello, yes. (Catena Lusso)
Still a notch above "entry level," but definitely Miss Congeniality in the Italian pageant.

himespau 

I bought mine used probably 6-8 years ago as just a frameset with a replacement fork. I replaced the replacement fork with a carbon threaded Nashbar fork to get more tire clearance (the replacement fork on there when I bought it had rubbing when 23 mm tires on wide rims collected too much dirt if I rode on wet dirt roads), and built it up with 10 speed Campagnolo parts.

smd4

Definitely a conundrum. I guess just put the best parts you have on the frame that speaks to you the most? At least you can ride the Cinelli a bit to see if that's the one. If not, a parts swap with the Concorde isn't the end of the Cinelli world...It'll still be a Cinelli.

panzerwagon 

That is a delicious conundrum to have. If it were me, unless historical preservation was a priority, I would transplant the best parts to the frame I like riding best to maximize joy.

I think some folks here are getting a bit too hung up on my entry-level reference, but cromor was decidedly lower in the pecking order of columbus tubing offerings, for those who care about such things. The implied context in my original comment was that a cromor frameset would be considered near entry-level within the Cinelli line-up of the era. However, it's still most definitely a Cinelli, and I freely admit that the enjoyment riding my Mens Sana, having owned and ridden it for over two decades, is on par with other columbus SL/SP/TSX bikes in my stable.*




*For the pedantic: No, this is not meant to insinuate broad conclusions about the relative merits of any tubing. This is a subjective statement about the riding experience of one individual, with a particular riding style, speed, weight, blah blah blah.

panzerwagon 

Found a photo of mine taken whilst dismantling. Embarrassing state to say the least, but it is what it is

BFisher

Maybe not too much of a conundrum if the Cinelli was originally sold as a frameset. No originality to the build, so apply it to the best fitting frameset all smiles.

Beautiful bikes, especially the Concorde!

Spaghetti Legs 

I agree, I think "entry level" is underselling it. Cromor tubing is second level but still quality. I am not an expert at telling the difference but the brakes are likely Croce D'Aune as that is what the rest of the group appears to be. That is a really nice find and I'd be excited too! I'm also a fan of the Campy rims.

bamboobike4

The best lines in a month of Sundays.

icemilkcoffee 

Now that is a crime! We should have an annual thread to see who scored the best steal in that year This one would definitely be a shoo-in.

smd4

Also--it just isn't the tubing, which, while seamed, is still Columbus. It's also the quality of the frame build. Fully-sloping pantographed fork crown, chromed chain stay, impressive filing on the stay tips at the dropout, etc. All very high quality.