(NOTE: The following is written by Ashley Wright, who has asked me to post it here)

The image above comes from an article in the December, 1984,
issue of the German magazine TOUR. The article is about a
cycling trip through Italy and includes a visit to Cinelli.

The author and photographer, Carlson Reinhard, writes about
this visit that they were escorted during the visit by Signor
(Claudio) Chirico who studied under Master (Luigi) Valsassina
for eleven years.

In response to the "publication" on the Web of my transcription
of the Cinelli Equipe Bicycle Guide article, Alan Goldsmith, the
design consultant who did the deal with Cinelli for Western
States Import (WSI) has written to me and filled in many details
that clear up questions about this bike's origins, who built it
and where. The April 1985 Bicycle Gluide article is at:
http://velobase.com/Resource_Tools/ArticleToC.aspx or
http://classicrendezvous.com/images/...ion_Equipe.pdf

1. The deal was done between WSI and Cinelli (the company) of Milan.

2. Goldsmith represented WSI and Andrea Cinelli, Cino Cinelli's
son, who remained working for Cinelli after his father retired
and sold the company to Antonio Colombo in 1979, represented
Cinelli (the company) in the negotiations that began in late 1983.

3. The frame was designed by Goldsmith and built in the Chirico
family shop in Bussero on the outskirts of Milan after design
details were discussed among Goldsmith, Andrea Cinelli and
Chirico and revisions were made. The Chirico shop also built
Super Corsas for Cinelli (the company).

Chirico was then owned and operated by Erminio Chirico,
who had taken over the 50-year-old family business from his
father Enrico in 1948, about the same time Cino Cinelli founded
his own bicycle business. Erminio's son, Claudio Chirico was
production manager for part of the period up until 1980, when
Andrea Cinelli took him on as frame builder for Cinelli (the
company). Claudio had previously apprenticed at the Cinelli
shop for 11 years under Cino's master frame builder, Luigi
Valsassina. It appears Claudio remained engaged in his father's
business during his tenure with Cinelli. Claudio's son Luigi,
took over the business in 1987 and continued to make bicycles
into 2012.

4. Goldsmith says not more than 150, or one shipping container
load, of this bike was made. He has since had a chat with
another former WSI principal who said he "feels" that the number
was either 50 or 100, but was not sure.

5. Goldsmith said that "sales were horrible" due to a host of
logistical and market factors. It was not a failure of the
bicycle but a failure of distribution and marketing.

My own thinking is that the numbers must be more than 50 as I've
seen 17 sell on eBay over the last seven years and am aware of
half a dozen more in private hands. That would be an unusually
large percentage of the total to track down. So maybe a 100 but
I would go with Goldsmith's guess of 150 as one container load
would seem a logical first contract target. It might also be a
reasonable number for the shop to turn out in a year, in
addition to whatever SCs it was producing. Just uninformed
speculation here on my part.

There was a question of Cino Cinelli's role, if any, in the
Equipe project. The introductory ad in the December 1984 of
Bicycling Magazine clearly states: "The frame is designed by
Cino Cinelli and production is coordinated and supervised by his
staff." But Alan told me that as far as he knows, Cino did not
play a role in the Equipe project. He pointed out that Andrea
Cinelli, who was running the company at the time for Antonio
Colombo, was an expert in his own right and would not have
needed his father's help executing the Equipe project.

I'm thinking the writer of the '85 Bicycle Guide article, which
also implies a Cino role, may have confused Alan's visit with
Cino to discuss the Centurion Ironman DS of '85 after Alan
signed on Dave Scott as endorser/promoter of that model, not yet
on the drawing boards. Alan said he had hoped to incorporate
Cino's ideas into the Ironman design but WSI nixed the idea in
favor of designing it after the already successful Comp TA,
another project of Alan's.

Alan, a lawyer by profession, and his wife Susy started up
Bikecology in Santa Monica, CA, in 1971. Bikecology (renamed
Supergo in 1982) was a retail and mail order business dealing in
high-end European bikes, frames and components. It was sold to
Performance Bicycles in 2002. Alan did two stints with WSI under
contract as a consultant, the first in the late '70s working on
the Semi-Pro and Pro Tour models among others and in the early
to mid-'80s focusing on the Comp TA, Equipe, Ironman and Accordo
models.