Everyone who loves them knows how scarce they have become. With exorbitant prices for NOS sets from the 70's and 80's.
And all of a sudden, there are more? It appears someone is making these again. Easy enough to make your own leather with embossed logos. But I wonder if someone in Italy is making the buckles again? If so, I find that very interesting. And a good thing, I guess. Anyone know?

CINELLI leather toe clip's straps vintage bicycle Alfredo Binda Dino Bianchi

Strappy Cinghietti Colnago Alfredo Binda Red Leather | eBay

The first to show up in numbers, I think, were these with the small Cinelli oval loge embossed, and the old font Alfredo Binda stamp. These were all over ebay several months ago. These are quite cool. I bought a set of black ones, but for a lot less than this.

Alfredo Binda Toe Straps Stamped Leather Blue Cinelli | eBay

Thanks RB for these links.

I'm picking up my McLean in a week and I want to change out a few items.

Straps are on the list.

Buckles look the correct design for the later with the plastic rollers that were in grey way back. I would have to gauge the leather, Bindas were always thicker than everyone else.
$100+ for straps that are consumables was not tolerable.
Hopefully production continues.

they sure were great from a stretch resistance standpoint. getting them to thread through a campag pedal could be a challenge...

does anyone know what colours were offered? can only recall natural brown, red, black, yellow and blue. were there others as well? expect bianchi prolly had them done in celeste.

were there binda pull buttons? iirc i always used rampinelli.

That's for sure. Frustrating to pull a brand new set of expensive straps through your Record pedals only to find the four corners of the new leather all abraded. I finally took a jeweler's file to the frames of my pedals, to ease all the rough edges.

I don't remember ever seeing A. Binda buttons. I use the REG ones, as I remember.

What a beauty, Grady. Going with black strap-o-las? Or dark brown to match that saddle?
Hmmm…Binda didn't make a dark brown one, did they?

Pretty. Looks a bit like the Kvale...both elegant and understated.

Thanks guys.

I haven't decided which saddle to use, but I have a period correct choice that will come with the bike.

I will likely start with a few new items though including a saddle that will break in to my rear.

Matching bar tape and toe straps are part of the changes.

The McLean comes to me needing nothing, but you know how that goes.

Noticed the same. Compared what others were fetching, the ones from Italy $38 del. to the US isn't so bad.

Seems to me to be a knock off.

As far as I know Cinelli still owns the Binda name, they use it in conjunction with their double strap. But there is no mention of the single strap anywhere on the Cinelli site.

Sure seem to be, don't they? But these buckles intrigue me. The tooling and effort to do these can't be that simple.
Maybe Cinelli still had the old tooling.

You'd be surprised how cheap tooling is these days and how easy it is to reverse engineer.

But at $38 a pop, even if tooling is under a couple grand, there is little, if any, money to be made. Probably someone like me who just wanted to do it and knows if you make 1, it isn't much more effort to make 100.

I would think the tooling and machinery to assemble the buckles is/was at a supplier. A backdoor operation is not inconceivable. The plating of the buckle metallic parts appears different, but the shape, how the pivot pins are finished look pretty authentic. I have to double check mine for the Made in Italy stamp.

The same seller is selling Universal and Campagnolo hoods, along with Campagnolo plated plastic pedal end caps... All components that were most likely sourced from outside suppliers way back. Could well be someone is very resourceful and is locating various vendors.

I bought a box of 100 Campagnolo fit brake blocks from Italy, most were no name, and about 20% were Campagnolo. It would be unusual for most of these manufacturers to be fully vertically integrated.

Sure, parts and finished goods can come from a vendor. And sure they could be using the old tooling. But all you need is a press, a tool and a guy who can cad plate. Not that difficult.

As for the Made in Italy, mine are stamped Importe d'Italia

^ Seems feasible. Common to see $7-8.00 delivered from Taiwan the leather / metal clasp Sunlite brand.
Just a guess, but perhaps these are Asian sourced?

Odd thought but 20 years from now the repop's will be considered vintage.

Re buttons: The "Italianate" (exc. frame) bike I built myself from scratch in the mid-80s had Binda straps (too right about being a bear to get through Campagnolo pedals), and I believe the plastic buttons were Campagnolo. I might still have them somewhere (worn off on one edge by pedal strike).

Come to think of it (I'm sure I have the straps somewhere), my Binda straps were laminated with some sort of woven material on top, not leather top grain like the ones in the links rootboy posted. Does anybody make those anymore? Also, I wouldn't want them to be branded Ciniente or Colnogo, but Binda, like they useta be.

And that was nothing compared to threading them through SunTour Superbe Pro pedals...

I don't remember Binda pull buttons. I have Campagnolo on mine.

Are these new straps laminated?

i seem to recall they offered laminated as an option at some point. if i remember correctly there was only one colour of laminated - sort of a neutral beige(?)

others are sure to recall better...

They did offer the Binda "Extra extra" model, or whatever it was called, which was woven nylon laminated between two strips of leather. Those were the cat's meow. Haven't seen a pair of those on ebay in years.

New ones aren't laminated that I can see.

I think it is a good guess someone is having the buckles replicated in China. Cheap and easy to do over there. Unlike in Italy.
But the low volume sales potential makes it a bit baffling to comtemplate.

Bonds Extras, a bone color. Only color, some variation depending on the leather. I bought a pair NOS a few years ago, I paid too much but I wanted security at the velodrome. There were also bright white Supers, laminated with mesh on only one side, bought those ten years ago.

I guess just send the tooling offshore.... Labor at 10-15% of local... Eager factory...

With the volumes so low I suspect it is just some mope doing this in his garage. Off shore makes sense when you are doing 100K+ parts. Shipping something other than a container kills margin.

My wife designed some four color embroidered patches for my daughter's Girl Scout troop.
Local vendors could do it, turn around two weeks, plus set up, and reasonable per patch price.
Delay in approval...
With four days to go, sent the file to a local rep for a Chinese mfg. some verification on colors, sample was made and image sent for approval within one business day. No set up fee, no freight, the patches arrived in three days total from the initial contact at a piece price less than local. Amazing.

I seem to recall two models BITD: "Super" and "Extra." Both were laminated, but one put the nylon reinforcement sandwiched between two strips of leather, while the other bonded it to the top of the leather. I don't remember which was which, but I have examples of both:

Strap with lamination bonded on top:



Strap with lamination bonded between two strips of leather:



I'm just wondering if there is modern production of Binda straps, whether they are also laminated, and how.

Extras were available in '74-'75, I bought mine in 1975.
Extras have the plastic core with leather on either side.
Supers came later, after 1979 I am pretty sure.
My supers look different than the image you show... Either another model, Prestige? Or?