Cinelli Steel is back!!
 

"Cinelli Supercorsa road & pista back in catalogue!

Official launch: Thursday January 22nd.

Offered in 17 sizes and 8 colors.

Estimated shipping time from order confirmation: approximately 3 months.

For prices and availability, please contact your sales representative."

" Media kit:
The world's most famous classic Italian road bike, in uninterrupted production since the early 1950s.

100% Made in Italy from Italian materials, still manufactured according to the original specifications perfected by Cino Cinelli during the 50s."

"The first Supercorsa was designed by Cino Cinelli, together with his frame builder Luigi Valsassina in the early 1950s. His stated goal was “the perfect functional harmony between the three main parts of the frame: the fork, the main triangle and the rear stays”.

"After 15 years experimenting with and refining what he described as the most “philosophical” piece of equipment produced by his brand, Cino and Valsassina arrived at the iconic solutions still so clearly recognizable in today’s Supercorsa: the proprietary sloping fork crown, the double-bolt fastback seat stays, pointed lugs and perfect Italian stage racing geometry."

This picture accompanied the B2B release:

Glad to see it, not unexpected since they started off with a limited run of 12 pink ones. The only reason they stopped production for approximately a year was because they were renovating the workshop where these frames are built. At least that's what I read in ones of their blog posts in early 2025 - is also affected the Nemo Tigs for a while.

-Gregory

I love that they continue to use quill stems unlike most other modern retro/classics that have switched over to threadless.
I'm surprised Campy still has a silver groupset though.

Wonder whether the silver group is exclusively offered to longtime customers such as Cinelli.

Or somebody in Vicenza finally realized that "modern components that don't look like they were designed by a 19-year-old anime dork we found on Instagram" was a market niche that was unoccupied...

Wait, no... that would be smart.

Never mind.

--Shannon

Even at $3K, I don't hate the limited edition pink.

Their other frames which look way too modern for my personal taste, average around $5K.

https://cinelli-milano.com/collectio...56647500300623

According to their site, only the 2 smallest sizes are available, which seems short-sighted to me. If you are only going to make 12 frames, why not make the first 12 orders that arrive in the sizes needed.

Maybe so but they're not that far off, once upon a time......

I notice they have modernized the frame to have 130mm dropout, but it still has ITA bottom bracket. I understand sticking to tradition, but ITA threaded cups have a known issue with loosening. It seems to be the wrong place to insist on tradition.

You tell 'em!

Of course, the difference between he and I is...

I'm right.

--Shannon

I'm open to hearing other suggestions. Maybe the Super, but it was a flash in the pan, no longevity.

The new Colnago Master, De Rosa Cromata, Tommasini Tecno and Sintesi, and many other "stock" Italian steel frames still retain ITA bottom bracket threading. In fact, the only model I could find on a website after browsing a bit that does not is the Wilier Superleggera, which is BSA 68.

-Gregory

That's what he said.

(And it's "between him and me.") (Compare to "between you and me.") (Former editor.)

Bianchi comes to mind. Don't think Masi or DeRosa eclipses Cinelli. Many other legendary marks, but Cinelli stood apart IMO.

I guess it depends on how one interprets the claim of most famous.

If it is about one model of bike, the Super, or the C40 may be more famous.

If one interprets the claim is about the brand, then Bianchi and Colnago would best Cinelli.

Hope nobody ever puts a gun to my head and tells me I have to name correctly the all-time most iconic Italian bicycle brand. (In my heart of hearts, it's Cinelli. But what if the guy with the gun is a Pogliaghi man?)

I didn’t realize they had ever stopped production of the Supercorsa. The Nemo (also steel) has been around a while as well.

I think Cinelli probably has one remaining polished silver Athena 11-speed group they swap from frame to frame every time they renew/extend Supercorsa production.

That groupset hasn’t appeared in the catalogue for almost ten years, and I doubt has been produced for even longer. Centaur, the pseudo-silver photocopy of a photocopy of a polished silver groupset, battled along a little longer and bits and pieces still surface from time to time.

As and when the Supercorsa reappears for sale I’d bet good money it’ll be offered as a frame only, or at most with a modern, non-silver groupset build.

I raced a Bianchi Specialissima in the '80's, and I loved it. But Bianchi is arguably at about the same level as Atala and Raleigh (and Schwinn, for that matter).

Fairly or unfairly, bike companies like Bianchi that historically sold all types of bikes at all price points, including kid's bikes, folders, commuters, etc., are usually thought to be on a tier below those that produced nothing but high-end bikes.

And Colnago farmed out a portion of their bike production to other frame builders in the '80's, from what I understand, damaging their reputation for a while.

They weren't alone in doing that. Cinelli apparently did, too, at least for some modestly priced "sport" frames. Not surprising, once the American racer market moved on from riding English and French bikes almost exclusively in the '70's to coveting Italian bikes in the '80's.

Must have been hard to keep up with demand in Italy in those years.

Of course, the claim was most famous, not best quality.

You're right. I forgot how the thread started.

Still, it's hard to say whether Bianchi is the most famous brand of Italian racing bicycles worldwide.

It's either the oldest or second oldest bike company in the world (I forget which), but their bikes were all but unknown in the U.S. until Bianchi USA had the good sense to hire Sky Yeager for their marketing director in the '80's.

She did an amazing job. Within a few years, people were actually asking for Bianchis, by name or otherwise. ("Do you sell those Italian bikes that are painted infant stool green?")

In the rest of the world, it might depend on what is meant by "famous." They've always sold lots of kid's bikes and utility bikes and so on in addition to their racing bikes, as I said previously.

I would guess Bianchi is more famous worldwide than companies that produce limited quantities of high-end bikes exclusively, just as Seiko might be more famous than Omega or other brands that sell only luxury watches.

As I mentioned above, the Supercorsa was only on hiatus for about a year while part of the Cinelli factory got modernized. It has only been sold directly from Cinelli as a frameset with an option to build it up with various (typically Campagnolo) groupsets by distributors, such as Cicli Corsa. Before it left the Cicli Corsa catalog a year or so ago, it was offered with a "classic" kit outfitted with the latest polished Centaur groupset, or "modern" with full Record carbon.

-Gregory

Lovely frame. Love the chrome. Looking for the Big Kids geometry charts for the above-58cm sizes whenever they decide to release those.