I'm starting the refurbishment of a 1958 Cinelli. It was my brother's project before he passed. He has it listed as a 58 SC. Is there anything to look for to tell that it IS an SC, not a Mod B? He really knew his stuff, but checking so that the decals are correct. Frame is completely chromed. He had collected all the correct parts.

AFAIK the biggest diff would be the forkcrown: SC would have the signature full-sloping crown but a "B" would have a flat crown (according to the Cinelli Timeline: 1950 to 55 – Modello B with flat crown and internal rear-brake cable routing.)
BTW until 1960 the "SC" stood for "Speciale Corsa" but after then became "Super Corsa"

Yeah, the fork crown is the biggest give-away. Also, look at the decals on the seat tube. Is there is either a "Mod. B" or a "Mod. SC" decal? Also, is there any reason to doubt what your brother said? I thought not.

If you post some photos, somebody here will likely be able to give you an informed opinion of SC v. Mod. B. That, and then we all would get a chance to drool over a great frame from the 1950s.

Whether it is a Speciale Corse or a Model B, you have a very cool frame that will build up into a very cool bike. Model Bs are somewhat more rare and some folks prefer to find the Model B for that reason. Your brother had good taste.

None of my Bs have internal routing.

Hope these help. He had a superb collection, which is now mostly gone. I'm thinking of painting the frame, not a big fan of chrome bikes, but I don't know if I should if it was this way from the factory. Has a Cinelli headset, steel seat post, bars, etc. Campy bottom bracket, Universal brakes, Campy hubs, Nisi rims, Brooks seat.

It is a SC, straight off. You have a serial number handy? I would send you some helpful links but Bike Forums does not allow.

Guy

That would be telling.

Images are blurry but it is late 1950s, the tell are the wolf lugs, oil port, and what I think I see on the serial number. For sure SC.

Over and out as they say :-)

Guy

5898

It the absence of a fork, the back of the rear dropouts tend to be filed on an SC, never with a B. But with the oiler hole (this feature stopped in the early 60s) on this, it is an SC. Bs never had them.

Cinelli timeline - all you need to know - Velo-Retro: Cinelli Timeline

That's not quite right. I have a 1974 all original Cinelli that the original owner gave to me. The decal says Speciale Corsa. The switch to Super Cross came later than that.

Story is, Cupertino cycles would order them w/o decals because the decals would frequently get damaged or flake during transit.

I’ve seen many a Cinelli without the downtube decals because the shop just left them off.

I imagine older and newer may have been inversely swapped

This is the decal on my 1971. Bought in Italy.

I've ordered the earlier style model decal, where it is similar to the Mod B decal except it says Mod SC. Also ordered the striped decal with the lettering in the middle band. I think these are more correct for the earlier bikes like mine. I have the other decals.

just going by what the "Cinelli Timeline" says...I have zero claims to any expertise, and I sure do not want to tangle with Chuck Schmidt (the Master of this, his own Timeline)!

I don’t claim expertise either. However, note that the original owner of my Speciale Corsa bought and rode it while working in Italy. Perhaps the “Super Corsa” decals were only for bikes imported to the US.

Read on Chuck Schmidt’s or a Cinelli Only website that the model name is, has been Super Corsa and that the decals with Speciale Corsa were a mistake but used anyway. Here is a pic from a 1968 SC that came my way recently.

Can’t seem to paste the link but look up

Cinellivintage.it

has a Super Corsa timeline.