Founded nearly 75 years ago, Cinelli has for many years been on the cutting edge of bicycle design, helping push forward materials, welding techniques, and frame designs.
The Italian brand’s expertise extends beyond bicycle frames as well, to stems, handlebars, saddles, and more. And along the way, the brand has pioneered many products that are taken for granted today including cork handlebar tape.
The rise of carbon fiber wasn’t the easiest time for the brand, but today the brand has found new life in a recent renaissance of steel bikes. We visited the brand’s headquarters in Milan, Italy, where we got a closer look at some of the interesting, innovative, and in some cases award winning bikes that the brand has created over the years that have helped it arrive at this moment in cycling history where steel is once more on the rise.
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The Laser is one of Cinelli’s most famous designs, pioneering TiG welding and creating a clean look without visible welds.
This bike came complete with a Campagnolo 50th anniversary group from 1983.
This Laser is built with a Columbus Air tubeset. Columbus and Cinelli have a decades-long relationship and share facilities.
This groupset is in pristine condition.
The Cinelli logo looks perfectly at home among modern logos, but it actually dates to the 1970s when Antonio Colombo bought Cinelli and replaced its classic head badge.
A later version of the Laser would become the first bike to win the Compasso d’Oro design award, recognizing just how advanced, and simultaneously beautiful, this project was.
This Laser Ammortizzata was made for time trials.
Downtube TT shifters are a reminder of how advanced this design was for its time.
Cinelli was not afraid to play around with tube shapes and go beyond the traditional double triangle design.
A carbon disc wheel was another advanced aero touch.
Today it’s taken for granted that a time trial bike should have an aero cockpit but that wasn’t always the case. This Cinelli cockpit features internal cable routing to help in the pursuit of speed.
Talk about saddle to bar drop.
This Supercorsa Donna is a women’s specific bike.
It features a pink frame and blue components, many of which are made by Cinelli.
Cinelli also pioneered new saddle designs.
Some lucky kid got to ride this Supercorsa Bambino.
This bike includes the old logo, a more traditional head badge.
This bike dates to the early days of the company.
A closer look at the Cinelli logo, which includes the symbols for both Milan (a serpent) and Florence (a lily iris).
Today, this Cinelli XCR Disc is the brand’s most advanced steel frame.
It features a throwback to the original Cinelli logo.
That’s a 31.6mm seatpost rather than the 27.1mm more frequently found on road bikes.
Cinelli is finding more interest in steel recently, and has introduced models to keep up with the times, including this Nemo Gravel.
Cinelli has collaborated with many artists over the years, inlcuding Tigran Avetisyan who painted this track bike.
With lathered on paint, this bike was treated like a real canvas.