Chuck wrote:
> Bicycle Guide, October 1989 discusses the 'Cinelli/Coppi' connection, in that
> Cinelli lured Bianchi's top builder Luigi Valsasina to join him. Shortly
> thereafter, Cinelli was asked to design a new frame for Coppi (1947) which
> Valsasina did not want to build (nor Coppi to ride) because it featured
> Cinelli's
> sloping fork crown. Apparently, Coppi thought the design looked too fragile, so
> Cinelli offered a compromise and had Valsasina build two frames: One with
> the "standard" design of the day, and the other, with the sloping fork crown and
> fastback seat cluster.
>
> As the article points out, Cinelli proved his point to both skeptics, and the
> Supercorsa was born.
There are so many photos of Coppi riding that if such a 'Bianchi' bike were to exist, there would be photographic evidence of it. I certainly have never seen such a bike in the Coppi books and photos that I have seen, but I suppose that Brett Horton would be best placed to state whether perhaps such a photo does exist. As I mentioned yesterday, Cino raced on, among others, Bianchi bikes and would therefore have known Valsassina, if as the article states, he was the top builder of the day at Bianchi. This previous Bianchi framebuilding experience prior to joining Cinelli would also explain the otherwise impossible 60 years of framebuilding attributed to Valsassina by Carsten on his site.
Steven Maasland
Moorestown, NJ