My 73? Cinelli, S/N 1506, has original paint and no down-tube decals. It has a head tube decal and seat tube decals, but no head badge. It is thou ght not to be a Cupertino machine, probably through Kopps/Princeton (but that is speculation).
harvey sachs mcLean va
My understanding is that a lot of Cupertino SC's made it to customers wit hout seattube decals. The original owner of my '68, which came without se attube decals, insists the bike did not have them originally, and he's be en full of good information concerning the bike. Having checked this out via the archives (where all the answers to life's difficult questions tru ly reside), one version of the tale has it that Cinelli frames (and they were ordered as frame-only and built up by the customer - with input from Spence of course) tended to arrive at Cupertino worse for wear, which fr equently included seattube decal damage. As a result, Spence would order the frames sans seattube transfer, which could then be afixed at the shop should the customer so desire. Some so desired; many did not. Hence the not entirely uncommon appearance of Cupertino SC's without said decals. A nyone else? Next time, the story of how the Hetchins got its stays ...
Ed Granger
Lancaster, PA USA