I greased mine in the 80s with just a touch of white grease and after awhile it just stopped squeaking after a few months of tightening and working with it. I got the stem and the Cinelli bars at the same time at Bud's Bikes in Claremont Ca. However! I recently, after much effort removed the bar and switched to a NOS Cinelli Priest bar and it is back to squeaking! I wonder how a coat of spray on dry moly lubricant might work?
Stewart Ferrell New York, New York.
On Sep 22, 2008, at 12:53 PM, Tom Dalton wrote:
> Matthew,
> The 1-Rs will not work if you don't start with a Cinelli bar with a
> fresh,
> compatible knurling. The knurling on the plate in the stem must
> mesh dir
> ectly with that on the bar. That is, the knurlings aren't just there
> too add friction or grip, they really must mesh like teeth of two
> gears. If the knurling on the bar is marred, it won't work. It's
> like
> most modern seatposts, where you can only change the angle in
> discrete i
> ncrements.
>
> If you use an older bar with the three rings of knurling, or the one
> wi
> th coarser knurling, or if it's a later bar with no knurling in the
> middle,
> it won't work. Anything non-Cinelli likely won't work unless it is
> an e
> xact knockoff (few were even the correct diameter, let alone with
> the same
> knurl). Start with the right bar, grease the crap out of the binder
> hard
> ware*, set it at the correct angle, and crank the heck out of it
> with a goo
> d wrench. Then you leave it alone and hope it dosen't squeek. Hope
> yo
> u get the angle right because futzing with it invites trouble.
>
> As you said, it's a sexy setup, and as you've discovred, it's a
> silly setup
> and technologically inferior (or perhaps excessive). Even pro teams w
> ith an infinite supply of Cinelli crap tended to only use them
> sometimes...
> and evidently less on the cobbles. No matter how many fresh bars and
> stems you have, they are still inconvenient and sometimes creaky.
> That said, they can easily be made to hold, but if they slip once
> the bar
> is toast. Hardly practical for anybody.... but I love the way they lo
> ok and have a three or four myself.
>
> I think one benefit of the design, besides good looks and the
> obvious hu
> ge aero advantage (joke) is that the hole in the front of the stem
> was an
> enrty point for boring out the extension. That might have made it
> light
> er, or at least made the extension more of a tube than a bar, which
> in theo
> ry is a metter distribution of material.
>
> * some say that greasing the knurl of the bar and stem eliminated
> squeeks,
> though Cinelli recommended against it. It's probably okay to do,
> since i
> t really isn't a frictional coupling, but more of a gear
> engagement... at y
> our own risk of course.
>
> Tom Dalton
> Bethlehem, Pennsylvania USA
>
> =0A=0A=0A