Last week, Dave Martinez suggested I ask Andrea Cinelli about the history of the Cinelli Riviera model. I therefore sent a translated copy of the various posts related to the subject.
Today, Andrea sent me the following message:
Telai "mod. Riviera": Sembra che hai amici molto ben informati che sanno "tutto" o quasi, di ciò che è stato prodotto/venduto dalla Cinelli negli anni 1950-70. Anche se la "filosofia" di impresa della Cinelli era orientata alla fabbricazione dei soli prodotti da competizione, alcuni clienti tedeschi ci avevano richiesto modelli da utilizzare anche per il ciclo-turismo (per poter montare portapacchi, parafanghi, ecc.).Abbiamo fatto produrre alcuni telai (il costruttore che operava solo per conto terzi, era a Monza) che abbiamo identificato con una etichetta "mod. Riviera" . E' probabile che il costruttore producesse anche per altre marche di biciclette.
which translates to:
Riviera framesets: It would appear that your friends are very well informed and know everything or almost everything about that whihc has been sold by Cinelli between 1950-70. Even if the Cinelli company philosophy was to produce only competition products, some German customers had requested models to also use for cycle touring (to be able to fit carriers, mudguards, etc...) We had a number of frames produced that we labelled with a decal "mod. Riviera". The builder, from Monza, only built for others, hence not in his own name. It is very likely that the builder also built for other brands too.
This would therefore explain why almost all of the Riviera bikes that are seen turn up in Germany, as well as why they are perhaps so similar to so many other bikes.
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Steven Maasland
Moorestown, NJ