Re: [CR] Ciocc was Respecting the Heron

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Date: Mon, 8 Feb 2010 20:14:56 -0800
From: "Steve Whitting" <ciocc_cat@yahoo.com>
To: <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>, "P.C. Kohler" <kohl57@yahoo.com>
In-Reply-To: <796229.73963.qm@web54407.mail.re2.yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: [CR] Ciocc was Respecting the Heron


What I know about Ciocc in a few sentences:  Master framebuilder Giovanni Pelizzoli's nickname was "Ciocc" (say like CHEE-OOCH - supposedly a local dialect for "poker faced" - although Signore Pelizzoli claims it is just a meaningless nickname also shared by his father and grandfather).  My understanding is that he apprenticed under Ugo De Rosa and apparently knew the great Cino Cinelli. Claudio Corti won the 1977 U23 World Championships on a Ciocc at San Cristobal, Venezuela which resulted in Signore Pelizzoli's signature model being named San Cristobal.  (Hey, that's my frame!) Signore Pelizzoli also built a frame that he called "Mockba 1980" after the Moscow Olympics.  Many pro riders reportedly rode repainted Cioccs in the 1980's. Check out this video on YouTube where Signore Pelizzoli pronounces "Ciocc" and restores a frame:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJHwPqn2jY0

Steve Whitting

"The Ciocc Cat"

Prairieville, Louisiana USA

Website at http://ciocc-cat.angelfire.com/


--- On Mon, 2/8/10, P.C. Kohler wrote:


From: P.C. Kohler <kohl57@yahoo.com>
Subject: [CR] Ciocc was Respecting the Heron
To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
Date: Monday, February 8, 2010, 7:52 PM


--- On Mon, 2/8/10, Steve Whitting wrote:


> Well,
> the paint and decals on my pre-1983 Ciocc San
> Cristobal have held up just fine, but then again I'm
> her original owner and I've taken very good care of
> her.

Ditto on my '82 Ciocc Mockba 80 with some superb chrome, too. But Masi, Colnago and Cinelli loved that nail varnish lacquer that looked translucent and gorgeous when new and wore, well, like nail varnish! The early Masi 3v's (mine is an '85) have horrible finishes, orange pealy and again so thin, tape will (and did) lift it right off to the white primer below. One of the US cycling magazines of the era mentioned the crummy finish in their review so it wasn't just me!

How many CR Listers have a Ciocc? You sure don't hear much about them around here but I think they are a very underated Italian marque. I got mine as a frameset from a fellow Lister and love her. She has the classic uber tight angles/hard tailed/touchy handling of the early 1980s like my 84 Peugeot PX which I find intoxicating, at least for the first 50 miles! Any longer, and you really know you've been riding a racing bike.  I think the Mockba was then the top of the line model with the tightest angles but there's not much documentation out there. And the coolest thing about owning a Ciocc is explaining 1) how to pronounce it and 2) convince people that Italians actually had word with an umlaut in it!

Peter Kohler
Washington DC USA