--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi guys,

Just scored what I think is a great deal. It's an older Cinelli steel frame that has been upfit with modern components. Mixed emotions on that - but it is all good stuff. Except for the Campy brakes, it is all DuraAce, Ultegra and 105.

Thing is, the frame has been (poorly) repainted - just slathered it on all over it. Fortunately, the identifier 'Cinelli SC Made in Italy' is stamped/forged in the bottom bracket. Any idea how I can ID what frame this is?

Regards and TIA

Many brands used Cinelli bottom bracket shells. Pictures would help.

I joked somewhere that I couldn't wait to find out why this WASN'T a great deal, and maybe I just had a Cinelli bottom bracket. So maybe it's no joke. Well, even if I threw away the frame, all the components are worth a lot more than I paid. There, I feel better now

I'll post some pics later. Thanks!

Right you are. You could buy a NOS Cinelli SC shell from cyclesdeoro today. Doesn't make the frame not a Cinelli either, though. We need to see some pics.

if it has a cinelli BB it's still likely to be a pretty good frame even if it isn't a cinelli.

Pictures of the seat cluster and fork crown and lugs are most helpful in IDing a Cinelli, as well as the BB.

Try this again ... pics of mystery frame







So, any ideas?

Need any different photos?

That is not a Cinelli. It looks like an american built frame to me.


The frame is giving off a bunch of mixed signals. It appears the top tube guides were brazed on sometime after the frame was built. The single water bottle braze on would suggest perhaps a frame no later than the early to mid-eighties. Those are campagnolo vertical dropouts I think, so that would place it late 70's most likely. The seat binder is uncommon on italian frames, has happened on some french frames, and the seat and chain stay ends show a french influence. I'd think someone from Fraysse's place may have put this together. Limongi did those chain and seat stay ends and Cuevas did seat stay caps similar to that. It shows those influences. All pure speculation mind you.

Definitely a top of the line frame though.

Well, the rest of my tastes are highly eclectic, and my dogs are usually SPCA muttleys, so why not the bike too?

Thanks for the input!

FYI: Mike Fraysse had a frame shop in New Jersey. More than a few frame builders went through his shop including Pepe Limongi and (I forget his first name)Cuevas, . Many others too. This may have or may not have been put together by either of them or someone who "apprenticed" there. But the seat stay and chain stay end style was used by Cuevas and Limongi and the seat stay cap is also a Cuevas style although I remember his caps to be longer. The campagnolo vertical dropouts are to me the key time stamp on the frame. Probably a late 70's, early 80's something.

Like I said, I could be way off though.

The age sounds about right ... the seller said it was made for his father, so 20-30 years ago might be close.

The named 'Emery Cycling' badge on the lower downtube is/was in Madison Wisconsin, if that means anything.

Curious, but not all that important I guess. Going to get it repainted, and would give 'credit' where it is due, if I knew.

When you pull the fork out, there may be something stamped on the fork steerer. There may also be decals under the paint. Es possible'.

everything skinny writes is well-reasoned, but still I'd like to see some close-ups: the seat cluster, the forkcrown, the rear dropouts, the brake bridge. Also: what's the BB threading and are there spiral ridges (rifling) inside the steerer (put your finger up there at the bottom of the forkcrown)?

My .02...

Not a Cinelli, but is late 70's early 80's. Not SLX, no rifling in the tubes, is my guess, because of the age.

Looks like Cinelli lugs as well as the BB, and Cinelli water bottle braze ons.

Doesn't look like a Cinelli sloping fork crown, though.


Close ups of the fork and seat cluster would help, as well as pics of the drop outs, but the lack of any identification on the BB leads me to believe it was a custom frame made by a good builder in 1978-80 in the USA.

My wife tells me I'm seldom right.

This will tell us that it is a Columbus steer tube and nothing more, am I correct?

Also the absence of riffling in the steer tube does not mean it is not Columbus either.

You can be right here on the forum, unless she reads it too...

the only bike that i have with two top tube cableguides is an '80ish colnago. The only bike that I have with star-shaped water bottle brazeons is a 1980 Araya. BTW, everything except the bottom bracket shell matches this Araya as well. I think that the Cinelli bottle cage mounts were diamonds, and I have a couple that look like that as well (early steel Treks). I'm with O.F. Guy...I think it is a local custom build. Does it have a serial number somewhere (may find one on the steerer tube).

I first thought of Colnago with the 2 cable guides. Then I looked at the fork crown and seat stay plugs (tops) without pantographing and I thought eureka! That's the very frame I'm looking for. I think the frame looks quite similar to an Eddy Merckx frame from his Molteni days. I also think the frame looks like a local builder's handywork.

I want a frame like yours to turn into an 'Eddy Merckx - Colnago built mock-up'. I would take off the cable guides, paint it orange and apply a decal set available through Cyclemondo. All it would then need is a Nuovo Record group, some wheels and bars and a little time with a drill press - hey presto - an Eddy Merckx mock-up.