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Hi,
I recently purchased a mid 80's Centurion/ Cinelli Equip bicycle w/mainly Suntour Superbe components. The bicycle is in very good condition overall but could really use a respray since several decals are in poor condition. Does anyone know if decals are available for restoring it. I was thinking of restoring it with all Cinelli decals but figured I should probably find out a little more about this bike model before messing anything up. Thanks for any input.
texbike
06-06-05, 11:37 PM
Dday,
Congrats on the purchase of your CC! I also have one that is in the process of being restored. I've had mine for 15 years and they are fantastic bicycles. Cinelli made a handful of them for Centurion around 83/84. It was Centurion's (Western State Bicycles?) top of the line/flagship machine. There appears to be a multitude of colors about on the remaining bikes these days, but the general concensus is that they were only sprayed silver and had purple decals. In fact, all of the remaining NOS CCs (CycleArt has one and so does Mt. Airey Bicycles) have this color combination. BTW, CycleArt has reproduction decals that are close, but not exact.
The frames are Columbus SL (stickers on the seattube and fork legs) and should have Cinelli pantos on the brake bridge, seatstays, and top of the fork crown. Drop-outs should be Campagnolo. Should have chrome head lugs, right chainstay, drop-outs, and fork crown. Cinelli bottom bracket shell should definitely be there. Mine has braze-ons for two bottle cages and cable routing on the top of the top tube.
They were spec'd w/a variety of neat Italian parts. I don't recall the exact spec on all of the parts, but the highlights are:
Crankset: Ofmega Mistral
F/R derailleurs: Nuovo Record
Shifters: Nuovo Record
Bar/stem: Cinelli (of course)
Brakes: Universal side-pulls w/Universal levers.
Headset: Ofmega (Mistral?)
BB: Ofmega (Mistral?)
Wheelset: Fiamme wheels w/miche hubs (unsure of the models of each)
Pedals: unsure but probably something Italian like gipiemme, miche, or ofmega
Seatpost: gipiemme
Seat: Cinelli
As mentioned, I've had mine for 15 years and have had it all over Europe and the U.S. to ride. I bought it as a frame and fork and built it up with a smattering of late 80s Campy stuff. It worked great! In the last year, I've put together a complete, pristine, Super Record group for the bike in anticipation of a complete restoration but am now thinking that it should be returned to its original spec as described above.
There is a gentleman in Boston who has a pristine, original CC. He was a tremendous help to me when I started researching this last year. Hopefully he'll post here as well. He has a wealth of pictures that could be used for reference.
Once again, congratulations on the bike! They are an often forgotten piece of Cinelli history.
Cheers,
Texbike