A check of the Cinelli Registry:
http://www.cinelliregistry.com/
makes it look like there is no decipherable correlation between s/n and date of manufacture.
To my eyes the EBay bike is not original and not from the late 60's. The paint and decals look way to good to be an original Cinelli finish and as Brian pointed out, the finish doesn't match the condition of the head badge. Also the Pat 72 derailleur and the allen bolt seat post binder indicate early 70's. The hex bolt bar clamp on the stem is likely earlier and would support the idea that this is a pieced together bike.
That said I would enjoy more discussion on this topic since I own a Cinelli that has also provoked discussion as to year of manufacture. I bought it 3 years ago from someone who bought it from the original owner in 1973. The original owner was still in the area and he stated that he raced it from 1970 to '72. Given the lead times of that era, I assumed that the bike was most likely built in 1969.
Check it out here:
http://www.wooljersey.com/
The bike was rough so I had it refinished. Components are original or exact replacements. Both prior owners confirm that the components are correct.
Comments welcome.
Norm Lafleur
Ashfield, Massachusetts
USA
Great fun following CR efforts to decode eBay stuff.
Alleged 1968 Holy Grail has SN 5938. For reference, Cinelli SC SN 5237 is alive and well in Eugene Oregon with an original 1971 NR group hung on it, waiting for me to buy it, when I save up.
Is it safe to assume that SN 5237 was made before SN 5938; or is that too naive?
**************** Original Message: Message: 1 Date: Sat, 31 Oct 2009 06:03:29 -0700 From: Charles Andrews <chasds@mindspring.com> Subject: Re: [CR] holy grail! To: <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org> Message-ID: <4877C4B2C1794A27A92F01DCCFD3540A@DELL> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
this bike, just outed by Fred:
is nice enough, but it's been quite awhile since I've seen a more entertaining example of a seller doing some fishing.
That's an early/mid 70s Cinelli in, admittedly, very good original condition from what I can tell. Such bikes routinely sell for 3-4K on ebay and have for some years now. There is nothing different about this one to justify such a price.
But I give the seller points for trying. Times being what they are, I might try it myself.
Charles Andrews Los Angeles
"everyone has elites; the important thing is to change them from time to time."
--Joseph Schumpeter, via Simon Johnson
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