60's Cinelli Mod B Project

[Old Ned]

Indeed! During my research, different people have told me that Rik Van Looy rode Masi, and not only in the track. Some time later Merckx quoted in an interview that one of his earliest objectives was also to ride frames made in Belgium, so he started with Kessel.... But that's another story.

Useful info., thanks. RvL is one of my big heroes from when I was lad. The fact that we share the same birthday (Dec 20) might have something to do with it!

 

[jordic1968]

Went today to check the feasiblity to replace the rear dropouts, as the one on the right had been repaired in the past. Although I already have the replacement ones the conclusion is: too costly ! -> will stay like this . Seems quite strong, not so bad looking and the wheel has a good alignment already without the adjusting bolt Don't want to mess it up.

 

[DSH]

Superia came into being after the brothers who owned Flandria had a fight, the story is that one brother came to the workshop the morning after to find the space split in two with a sheet running down the middle

Trying to work out if a rider was riding a bike made by the team is always a bit complicated. First up there are cases of riders repainting and re-badging frames made by someone else, to give one well known example, Freddy Maertens was riding Gios frames when he was at Flandria, at least until the boss found out and smashed them up.! The second complication is that a number of independent frame builders would build frames for various of the bigger manufacturers

 

[jordic1968]

too many things on my head now so I've decided I'm not going to restore it myself . Thanks all for the comments. I've learned a lot from the 60's but off it goes to ebay...

 

[Old Ned]

Photo of Eddy's 'Cinelli Superia' on this thread.

viewtopic.php?f=12&t=418060

 

[jordic1968]

Re:

Thanks!First time I see this pic . So all starts to match.. Likely Cinelli was lillte busy these days or Belgians at Superia used same lugs and stile....

 

[Old Ned]

Flicking through my collection of old Sporting Cyclist mags I came across this photo of Patrick Sercu from 1964 riding for Superia. His frame clearly shows the 'Cinelli' style seat cluster. On closer examinations of Superia riders photos around that date there seem to be 2 different styles of Superia frames in use. The one PS is riding has a white head tube (as did Vin Denson's) whereas the one Rik van Looy (and some others) rode seem to be a solid colour with a more conventional seat cluster. The plot thickens!



BTW, in those days, if you were a world champion in any cycling discipline you could wear your rainbow jersey in any race. Now you can only wear it when racing in the discipline being raced, hence time trial national and world champions only displaying their jerseys infrequently, often only during grand tour TT's.

 

[Old Ned]

Here's a photo of Vin Denson with his Superia with the white head tube etc. like Sercu's. July '64 magazine cover.



Looking at the angle of the stem, pointing slightly downwards, it appears to have a steepish head tube.

EDIT - found a colour photo of Merckx on a Superia of this style and the colour is a mid flamboyant blue with what appears to be black lugs and white head tube. TBH, I was expecting the frames to be Red. RvL single colour frames are also blue but seemingly slightly darker almost Gios blue.

 

[jordic1968]

yep, by that time frame masters were Italian, and top riders were Belgian, so not surprisingly there was a connection there at the end although little documented.... Thanks for sharing the pics, those are only found on old magazines pre-IT era