rjhammett

I own Colnago Master Piu. I believe it is a 1993. This bike has a Cinelli bottom bracket (raised lettering on the underside of the BB). Most of the pictures I have seen of Colnago bikes have the clover/club cutout on the underside of the BB. Does anyone know if there were certain models that had the Cinelli BB or did Colnago bikes use Cinelli BB during a certain time period?

By the way, my daughter has a 1984 Raleigh Team Professional with a Cinelli BB. Many of those didn't have the Cinelli BB either.

unworthy1

I'm repeating hearsay, but...Colnagos never used Cinelli frame parts, due to some bad blood between Ernesto and Cino, I guess. If you have a genuine Colnago with a genuine Cinelli BB, then it must have been after they kissed and made up.

rjhammett

That is interesting. My bike is definitely genuine.

rjhammett

Oh foolish me. It is amazing what you can see with a little light and reading glasses. It does not say Cinelli on the bottom bracket shell. It says Colnago in raised letters.

unworthy1

well, just to add a bit more hearsay: it isn't well documented (that I have found) but Faliero Masi also had some dispute with Cinelli and went to spec'ing only frame parts and components from other competitor sources for many years (tho he had used Cinelli stuff on his very first frames and bikes). If you peruse catalogs from Masi and Colnago you'll notice a distinct lack of Cinelli stems and handlebars, as well as Unicanitor saddles and Regina freewheels/chains (brands that were associated with Cinelli).

repechage

Everest chains and freewheels and 3ttt saddles, stems and bars, all the 3ttt parts decorated with M or Masi identification.

Drillium Dude 

An interesting observation; one sees very, very few Cinelli Colnago-pantographed stems, for example. I have one - a 1R - but all the rest after Colnago's Super-Pantografata seem to use the 3ttt versions of stem/bars. Cinelli came out with the 1R in '73 and the Super-Pantografata was the same year (using a 1A). Any idea what their beef was, and when it might have begun?

A pic of the stem:



Note the oval logo, denoting an early version.

DD

unworthy1

I sure don't know the details, but it's a good question for the experts on the CR list (or the guys here who know the straight p**p). I would point out that pantographing was seldom done by either the component mfgrs. or the frame builders, it was often farmed out to a shop with a pantograph engraving machine, and such a shop did all sorts of brands. It could also be done on older parts, so the graphics and the component might not "match" as expected.