Classic & Vintage - Cinelli Pista SC - my new baby

This is it. I'm going to stop... right now.

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d28/drong/headbadge.jpg

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d28/drong/Cinellifull.jpg

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d28/drong/Cinelliheadtube.jpg

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d28/drong/cinellihear.jpg

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d28/drong/CinelliSeatcluster-1.jpg

Cinelli dudes - the s/n is 3315. I checked the Cinelli Registry and came up with nothing. Any idea about the year of this bike? No drilled out top headlug.

NICE!! Is the head badge aluminum or silver plated brass?

.....And what a great place to stop! Lovely, lovely, lovely bike.

Really nice!

Don

Beautiful bike!!

Dating a Cinelli is clear as mud. Serial numbers mean absolutely nothing. The components point to the early sixties (assuming they are original). The steel stem and bars say 50s-60s. The rims don't look original but the hubs and cranks could be original. Check the locknuts for a date stamp.

Where/how did you find that beautiful machine?

By any chance, is that one of those French plastic-top saddles?

-Kurt

By any chance, is that one of those French plastic-top saddles?

-Kurt

It's a unicanitor. Not too plush, but it's not exactly built for long distance comfort.

The bike was purchased from a longtime racer / bike fiend who's thinning out the herd. His disdain for riding fixed on the road was my gain.

I believe the headbadge is silver plated brass, It was quite tarnished, so I cleaned it up with vinegar and baking soda. Aluminum doesn't tarnish, does it?.

This bike was raced for many years, back when Winnipeg had a drome. So I think most of the parts are original

I know the rims aren't original. The previous owner had em relaced. I'd like some shiny aluminum tubies one day, but I'm not in any rush.

I like all the nicks and scratches. That bike had a good life. Used for its intended purpose. Be gentle with her and give her the respect she deserves.

I like the tape on the top tube also. Is that still a common practice for the trackies? Protects the top tube, somewhat, when the bars get turned sideways in a crash or fall.

Aluminum will get a white oxide coating on it.

Sorry to dig this up again, but I'd like some help in dating this bike. According to an article by Mark Petry called The Cinelli Story (http://www.petry.org/markp/lastoria.htm), pre '81 Cinellis s/n did not follow any sort of scheme. According to a Yahoo answers page, Cinelli employed a large number of builders after '68, so serial numbers were all over the place. Furthermore:

"The key to dating a Cinelli is the lugs (3 holes or no hole) and the bottom bracket oil port. The presence or absence of these features will help to establish the manufacturing date of a Cinelli frame.

The BB port disappeared in about 1965. The 3 holes in the lugs appeared in about 1968."

My bike has no oil port, and does not have any holes in the lugs. It is, however, a Pista, and I'm not sure if the SC or Mod B lug-dating scheme is applicable.

The CInelli Registry is not much help, as the 2 closest Pista s/n to mine are #2572 and #4633, built in '68 and '70 respectively. To further muddy the issue, #1106 was built in the late 60s, and #1730 and #1860 were built in the early 70s.

Sorry for being such a nerd.

Sorry to dig this up again, but I'd like some help in dating this bike. According to an article by Mark Petry called The Cinelli Story (http://www.petry.org/markp/lastoria.htm), pre '81 Cinellis s/n did not follow any sort of scheme. According to a Yahoo answers page, Cinelli employed a large number of builders after '68, so serial numbers were all over the place. Furthermore:

"The key to dating a Cinelli is the lugs (3 holes or no hole) and the bottom bracket oil port. The presence or absence of these features will help to establish the manufacturing date of a Cinelli frame.

The BB port disappeared in about 1965. The 3 holes in the lugs appeared in about 1968."

My bike has no oil port, and does not have any holes in the lugs. It is, however, a Pista, and I'm not sure if the SC or Mod B lug-dating scheme is applicable.

The CInelli Registry is not much help, as the 2 closest Pista s/n to mine are #2572 and #4633, built in '68 and '70 respectively. To further muddy the issue, #1106 was built in the late 60s, and #1730 and #1860 were built in the early 70s.

Sorry for being such a nerd.


Looking at Cinelli serial numbers, as was pointed out early in this thread, will merely drive you batty. I don't believe this has anything whatsoever to do with Cinelli employing "a large number of builders after 1968", by the way. I suspect that statement is nonsense. Cinelli was still a fairly small operation well into the 70's, and serial numbers were all over the place decades prior.
Don't bother trying to use the SN. Use the frame parts as clues. The oil port and lug hole info should apply to track as well as road bikes. I would bet your bike is from '65-68' or so, based on those elements. I don't know if you'll be able to get any closer than that (did you check the hub locknuts as suggested?) She's a beauty, whether you know that exact year or not.

The Model B and C never had the oil port but I don't know about track bikes. As I said before and Picchio said, the serial number means nothing. You could email Guy Apple (he runs the Cinelli registry) and get his opinion. He is a little slow to reply but it will come.

Check the CR archives, there is much about dating a Cinelli.
http://search.bikelist.org/?SearchString=dating%20AND%20cinelli

Your best bet are the components (assuming they are original) to get a date, Cino was a crafty old fox who gave you nothing.;)

The Model B and C never had the oil port but I don't know about track bikes. As I said before and Picchio said, the serial number means nothing. You could email Guy Apple (he runs the Cinelli registry) and get his opinion. He is a little slow to reply but it will come.

Check the CR archives, there is much about dating a Cinelli.
http://search.bikelist.org/?SearchString=dating%20AND%20cinelli

Your best bet are the components (assuming they are original) to get a date, Cino was a crafty old fox who gave you nothing.;)

Good call on the oiler port - my bad! I had read that the track frame identifiers were the same as those for the road bikes, but I emailed someone I know who owns bunch of Cinellis, including several older track bikes. He reports that none of them have the oiler ports. So my (glib) date guesstimate may well be off, and your best bet may indeed be to use the components to date the bike.

Let's clear up a bit of misinformation: 1) steel bars were still commonly used well into the 70's on track bikes, 2) at least some Cinelli B's did come with the BB with incorporated oil port 'bubble' on the top of the BB, it was however often not dilled out. For C's I wouldn't want to comment either way, 3) Cinelli did not employ outside builders for anything but the Riviera model during the whole 'reign' of Cino which ended in 1978. During that period production never exceeded 1000 frames in any year so outside contract work was not necessary 4) The OP's bike seems to likely be late 60's or early 70's. I believe the Made in Italy sticker on the headtube was not commonly fitted before then. To be more sure, you should show us the Campagnolo name and size marking on the seatpost, as well as check the hub lockrings and cones.

Let's clear up a bit of misinformation: 1) steel bars were still commonly used well into the 70's on track bikes, 2) at least some Cinelli B's did come with the BB with incorporated oil port 'bubble' on the top of the BB, it was however often not dilled out. For C's I wouldn't want to comment either way, 3) Cinelli did not employ outside builders for anything but the Riviera model during the whole 'reign' of Cino which ended in 1978. During that period production never exceeded 1000 frames in any year so outside contract work was not necessary 4) The OP's bike seems to likely be late 60's or early 70's. I believe the Made in Italy sticker on the headtube was not commonly fitted before then. To be more sure, you should show us the Campagnolo name and size marking on the seatpost, as well as check the hub lockrings and cones.

Good call on that sticker. I was trying to track down the time frame for that but was unsuccessful. I would expect the bike to have the lug cutouts, though, if it was early 70's.

Good call on that sticker. I was trying to track down the time frame for that but was unsuccessful. I would expect the bike to have the lug cutouts, though, if it was early 70's.

Track bikes often had different angles to those used on road bikes and therefore teh lugs did not all change at the same time.

Chained revolution has just started a page using various Columbus tubing stickers as an indicator of frame age:

http://chainedrevolution.com/CS/forums/553/ShowThread.aspx#553

It only starts from 1969, but it may help. I can't quite see your seat tube stickers from the photos.

By the way, does anybody know if Cinelli Pista SC's ever had the sloping fork crown like the road version? Given that Cino believed it made the fork stiffer, I would have thought the Pistas would get them but of the, admittedly few, Pista SC's I've seen none have had it.

Checked the locknuts and the're from '67.

The Pista crankset has a 151 BCD, so it's pre-67.

I'm not sure if the seatpost is original. It's a 2-bolt unfluted post, but it's been milled down on a lathe from 26.8 to 26.4. Not sure if the original broke, or if the original owner just didn't want to bother with buying a new post. Sketchy, I know, but I weigh like 135...

As for the sticker, it looks like the '69 version - gold foil. The earlier columbus looks like a decal, which mine definitely isn't.

So, I'm figuring late 60s. Thanks for your help.

Some more eye candy, chained revolution's new ride, a '52 Pista

http://chainedrevolution.com/CS/forums/storage/5/316/cinelli52pista.jpg

The Pista crankset has a 151 BCD, so it's pre-67.

I'm not sure if the seatpost is original. It's a 2-bolt unfluted post, but it's been milled down on a lathe from 26.8 to 26.4. Not sure if the original broke, or if the original owner just didn't want to bother with buying a new post. Sketchy, I know, but I weigh like 135...



not exactly.. pre-67 if it's a road crankset but the pista cranksets switched to 144 bcd a bit later.. as late as 1969 or 1970 (probably weren't too many track racers demanding 41T chainrings)

also, the seatpost probably isn't sketchy.. it's only .2mm of wall thickness milled off and probably the same way campy originally made the different size posts in their shop

nice score !

Checked the locknuts and the're from '67.

The Pista crankset has a 151 BCD, so it's pre-67.

I'm not sure if the seatpost is original. It's a 2-bolt unfluted post, but it's been milled down on a lathe from 26.8 to 26.4. Not sure if the original broke, or if the original owner just didn't want to bother with buying a new post. Sketchy, I know, but I weigh like 135...

As for the sticker, it looks like the '69 version - gold foil. The earlier columbus looks like a decal, which mine definitely isn't.

So, I'm figuring late 60s. Thanks for your help.

Given the fact that seatpost was not supplied by Cinelli (It is absolutely certain that it would have been 26.2 mm had it been supplied by Cinelli.), you can deduce that the bike was built up from a lone frame and fork, so the date codes on any individual parts, especially for a track bike don't have much importance. Back in the late 60's, it was already very unusual for a shop to have any high end parts lying around. They were usually kept for image purpose and it was not expected that you would sell them quickly. In fact it was quite common to keep high end parts in stock for many years. 151 BCD track cranks were still sold well into the 70's, always without date codes, so they don't give you any hint. The hubs means the bike almost certainly doesn't predate 1967, but I believe the other signs had already pointed that out earlier.

I haven't seen any photos of your tubing decal to be able to comment on that but do remember that Cinelli was a Columbus distributor and therefore could have had decal designs earlier than others or used them later than others. I therefore stick to my earlier guess of late 60's or early 70's

BTW, I wouldn't worry about the seatpost being cut down 0.2 mm. I have taken a seatpost down quite a bit more than that without any ill-effects.

Thanks guys, I've really enjoyed reading this thread.