Dear Listees,
With all the recent list buzz regarding Cinelli's I thought this might be a good time to share this story.
In 1999 I was working for a large bike shop in the SF Bay area and a petite, middle-aged woman came in and asked to see some inexpensive mountain bikes. As part of my cheesy sales-pitch I asked her if she already had a bike. Her answer made my jaw drop - she told me she had a 1971 Cinelli Super Corsa that she had bought directly from the Cinelli shop in Milan.
I was stunned, to say the least, and I asked her about some details of what that was like back then. The customer had just graduated college and was on a tour of europe. Some bike-savvy friends had told her to visit the Cinelli shop in Milan if she was looking for a "good" bike. She was happily surprised that I knew what a special bike it was. The absolutely best part of her story was the detail that she had bought the bike directly from Cino ("the old man") and that the bike already had a "sold" tag on it with someone's name and details. She mildly protested that she was taking someone elses bike - but Cino told her not to worry, they would build that person another one (How long of a wait was that in those days ? ! ). She had cash-in-hand and she left with THAT bike, THAT day.
I had heard stories and vague rumors of other Italian builders that would sell peoples pre-ordered bikes out from under them, but never an actual first-person account from someone who purchased such a bike.
It turned out that the cheapo mountain bike she had come in for was simply a gift for a friend. And yes, she still had her Cinelli.
Mike Fabian
San Francisco CA, USA