1948, a good professional racer with 15 years pedalling experience in the legs and the geniality in mechanics, decides to make use of his brilliant intuitions developed during the many miles run on every type of road surface, it’s Cino Cinelli.
Some may remember him for his cycling career, many for his great gifts given to cycling, the modern handlebar, the first saddle with a plastic frame, the first foot clips, the first quick release pedals.
30 years later, in 1978, Cino handed the company over to a young entrepreneur in the steel tube industry with the bicycle at heart: Antonio Colombo.
His interpretation is different, perhaps more visionary, the eye sees beyond the present. So the company is transformed and the inventions of the “design made in Cinelli” begin to get known all over the world. The bicycle changes, or better, the vision of the bike changes. The bike is seen as total project. Laser is born, the lugs are abandoned and Tig welding is introduced in the frame. Furthermore it is the only Italian bicycle to win a Compasso d'Oro (1991) besides more than 28 gold medals in various Olympic games and World Championships.
Competition is always in the Cinelli’s DNA. Its handlebars are chosen by Champions such as Lemond, Fignon, Hinault and Chiappucci, without forgetting Lance Armstrong and Mario Cipollini and also Di Luca, Freire and Simoni.
Cinelli’s Rampichino (1985) introduce MTB in Italy, Cork Ribbon (1987) reinvents the bicycle ribbon, Spinaci extensions (1996) are used by over 800000 cyclists, Bootleg (2000) challenges the rules and reinvents the concept of street cycling, Ram (2002) revolutions the handlebars.
These are the roots of Cinelli, this is its present: today Cinelli is mentioned in the Dictionary of Italian Design (Rizzoli, 1999), in the ADI Design Index (2000-2001), and the Corriere della Sera newspaper calls it a cult object in the USA like Ferrari, Vespa, Lavazza or Fornasetti (9th January 1999).
Since 1997 Cinelli is a division of Gruppo Srl and together with Colombus forms a world recognised production pole in the top level cycling industry.
Gruppo’s factory is based in Caleppio di Settala, 10km east of Milan. The new 18.000 m2 complex includes sales and accounts offices, products development, engineering, production and warehouse. |
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