One does probably not count on a e book about probably the most storied names in Italian biking, well-known for quill stems and cork handlebar tape, to start with a dialogue that includes a British clothier however when that designer is bike-mad Paul Smith and he’s chatting with Antonio Colombo of the well-known tubing dynasty that the way in which forward will likely be eccentric, to say the least. “Cinelli” is a powerful and costly e book however simply be ready for a wild trip. A wild trip, that’s, if you will discover it. The e book got here out in 2012 and whereas nonetheless obtainable on the used e book promote it instructions bibliophile costs.
Printed by Rizzoli, well-known for its lovely artwork books, “Cinelli” will not be something like your traditional bicycle historical past however is really one other artwork e book. It’s beautifully designed, after all, like many bike books are however the content material way more addresses aesthetic points fairly than technical ones. There’s a mixture of historical past, normally respectful, with issues of texture and high quality, maybe a giant dose of fashion-world pretense but in addition some real humour. There’s a beneficiant number of glorious images, marvellously sharp and evocative, irrespective of which period represented.
The e book opens with aforementioned kind-of-interview between the Clothes Man and the one who seems to not be Mr. SLX Tubing however fairly the Mr. Bicycle of the Artwork World. Antonio Colombo’s household enterprise, Columbus Tubing, goes again to 1919 and he additionally serves as President of Cinelli, acquired by the household in 1978. The e book is break up into chapters that don’t go in chronology however fairly every spotlight a unique facet of the corporate’s surprisingly numerous product line. It’s telling that one of many first issues achieved by the Colombos was a redesign of the archaic Cinelli emblem in 1979. The “winged C” is an outstanding instance of a profitable redesign and this feel and look started to breathe new life into Cino Cinelli’s atelier.
“Within the bicycle, Colombo noticed an object of design, technically excellent, essentially the most environment friendly mode of transportation ever invented, which nonetheless appeared unable to speak to most of the people its larger fashionable social potential. Considered one of his first choices as majority shareholder of Cinelli was to fee a brand new emblem that may mirror his imaginative and prescient of the bicycle as a dynamic and progressive social aspect.”
A Cinelli Supercorsa Pista from the Sixties
After this name to arms within the opening chapter, Lodovico Pignatti Morano, the writer, goes backwards into the traditions of the previous by introducing Cino Cinelli’s masterful racing body, the Supercorsa. The Supercorsa was produced in very restricted numbers as a sideline to Cinelli’s function as the most important provider, together with Campagnolo, of bicycle parts in Italy. Supposedly constructed at a loss however to the Grasp’s exacting specs, the brand new regime started a program that began with color and switch modifications after which went on to utilizing new methods and instruments for body development because the Supercorsa was improved. It had been brazed by one professional, Luigi Valsassina, till 1980, and he too is proven within the e book at work. That is Previous College, because the Younger Individuals say.
From the legendary Supercorsa, which was constructed first in 1948 and continues in manufacturing to today, we transfer subsequent into the bits and items which have made the Cinelli identify so seen, starting with the revolutionary (no less than for the diehards of the biking trade) sloped fork crown, lovely funding forged lugs, the outstanding Unicantor saddle that’s thought of the premise of the trendy racing saddle—all these come from Cino’s period, together with the well-known 1A alloy stem and the 60-series of handlebars and distribution of Binda straps. However post-Cino stands an organization captivated with experimentation. The designs are novel: the intelligent and controversial Spinaci time trial bars; the spectacular Alter threadless stem, with its pin-up lady cowl (as utilized by Mario Cipollini, naturally); the much-loved cork handlebar tape; the built-in handlebars (Integralter and RAM).
A plastic Unicanitor saddle, Eighties
Antonio Colombo not solely oversees this circus of invention but in addition owns an artwork gallery. He recounts assembly Gary Fisher in California and hanging out with him at a Grateful Lifeless live performance. With the Rampichino the corporate launches Europe’s first mountain bike, restricted to 1000. Maybe making greater than that quantity would have made good business sense however one senses that mass manufacturing will not be actually the type of Cinelli. Type is the type, and Colombo is clearly excited by the stylish fastened gear scene, though he’s rebuffed by one group of American riders who think about Cinelli’s Bootleg mannequin “a venture for Milanese dandies, too aestheticized and conceptual for his or her style. A lesson realized.”
It’s unusual to think about an industrial producer in Italy wanting to come back to grips with the “authenticity” of the city bike owner motion. “The fixed-gear motion, greater than every other in biking historical past however very like different city subcultures, articulated a self-conscious aspiration towards ironicity…” Nicely, okay, if the result’s a clear and enticing design just like the Vigorelli monitor body.
Says Signore Colombo: “If you happen to’re going to purchase a efficiency bike, it is perhaps that you just’re much less within the symbolic worth of the bicycle. However for me and my clients, a bicycle is greater than in instrument of efficiency, it’s a fancy of issues. I’m to introduce, beside the ride-ability and the efficiency of a bicycle, extra worth—typically an ironic worth. Not at all times being one hundred pc high-tech; high-tech is worrying someway. However that’s why I play typically—just like the smiley faces on our Vigorellis.” One could be pretty sure that Mr. King Liu of Large in Taiwan doesn’t speak like this.
The e book is peppered with work illustrating some fanciful notions about Cinelli (how about “Shakti Cinelli,” that includes the Hindu goddess, maybe?) and it’s clear that everybody is having loads of enjoyable with all of this. Nicely, the Spinaci episode was in all probability not a lot enjoyable after a brand new manufacturing facility was constructed after which the handlebars had been subsequently banned by the UCI, however it appears that evidently a torrent of fascinating concepts continues to circulation from what Cino’s previous firm. At one level there was even a mini-chain of three outlets, prefiguring what has since turn out to be the “idea retailer” for high-end bike producers. Some chapters characteristic feedback by different folks with a connection to Cinelli, together with racers Felice Gimondi and Gilberto Simoni, but in addition artists Barry McGee and Benny Gold.
The Cinelli Laser, 1981.
There are a number of chapters dedicated to the remarkably attractive Cinelli Laser bicycle, which from its 1981 origins onwards seems nearly two-dimensional and fantastically proportioned in new methods far past what the inventors of the diamond body might need thought of. And the e book ends, appropriately, with the blending of trade and artwork with the Laser painted up by graffiti-inspired artist Keith Haring, a motorcycle that Antonio Colombo says everybody needs their image taken with. It options on the quilt of “Cinelli—The Artwork and Design of the Bicycle,” a e book which delivers what it units out to do in its title.
“Cinelli—The Artwork and Design of the Bicycle” by Lodovico Pignatti Morano
Rizzoli Worldwide Publications, New York, 2012, 288 pp., hardbound
ISBN 978-0-8478-3867-7.
- “Cinelli—The Artwork and Design of the Bicycle” could be discovered at AbeBooks: www.abebooks.com.
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