Amazing build! Really well done. I think one can see Cinelli's road heritage here in their early mtbs. The conversion looks like it was the designers original intent.

i also can't resist saying that the Italians may have beaten Jan Heine to the 26er monster-roadie by decades...

Those tires are serious business, it's wild that you squeezed them in on a frame of that era. How wide are they, actually? My experience with Conti tires is they run narrower than spec. Real world data is always nice, rather than ordering and hoping they fit...