A Cinelli fit for an Empress

 

A number of years ago I came across this gem.  Any Cinelli is an icon of the cycling world, but this one is even more special.  If you search on the internet you will find older Cinelli lady bikes (sometimes built as city bikes), and some newer ones (with the flying C logo).  But I've yet to see images of another lady Cinelli from the 70's with the classic headbadge and graphics.  This one even has fender eyes, but it was clearly intended as a performance machine.  The wheels are actually smaller than 700c - they were the unique slightly smaller wheels that Cino Cinelli tried to introduce in the 70's.

The color is a lovely pink.  I do not have any documentation about this machine, but there is the "story".  As many know, Big Wheel was a famous bike shop in Denver.  It was run by Jack and his brother Chris (Jack's daughter Yvonne was a well known USCF official in Colorado for many years).  As the the story goes, Chris traveled to Europe extensively to meet with suppliers and bring back some of the best cycling equipment available.

Apparently Chris visited Cinelli and was allowed special access to see some items in storage.  There he spotted this lady Cinelli - but it was not for sale.  On following visits, he would try to purchase the bike but was rebuffed.  Finally, Cinelli relented and Chris obtained the bike and brought it back to the US.  Eventually, someone I know bought it from Big Wheel after waiting his turn, and then I obtained it.  

In a moment of silliness, I actually traded this bike to Brian Baylis (may he rest in peace) who then sold it to an east coast collector.  I made a pest of myself to the point where the collector sold it back, so its now in the Boulder Bicycle family again.

As lore goes, this bike is one of 3 that were built at the same time.  The first one went to the Empress of Japan.  The second went to someone in the Cinelli family.  And this is the third of the trio.  

Perhaps someone has info on the others, or perhaps more info to shed on the story?  

A theory on protecting your knees - and your cranks!

 

I think it's always been well understood that pushing big gears is bad for one's knees.  But there are a couple of trends in the bike world that are of concern.

• Some sellers of bike goodies advocate that folks ride without any form of actual attachment of the foot to the pedal          
• The use of spiked pedals and grippy platform pedals for mountain biking

Here is the thing - I have this belief that even a slight reduction of peak pedaling down stroke force can have a tremendously beneficial effect on reducing knee strain and future knee problems.  I've noticed that on the rare occasions when I ride with my feet "free" from any attachment to the pedal, my knees are quite achy later on (I do have some history of knee issues).  

A bicycle crank tends to break due to a fatigue failure.  As I understand it (I'm not a mechanical engineer), the number of cycles that a part can operate through without failure is related to peak moment on the part by a cube function.  So double the peak moment at each cycle of use, and the part will fail in 1/8th the number of cycles.  

Might it be that our knees respond to peak force in a similar way that our bicycle parts respond?   Think about almost any activity.  If you do it "easy enough" we tend to be able to do it for a very long time.  But as intensity is pushed above a threshold, things really start to hurt.  Even a small reduction in peak force applied to the joint might be extremely helpful in keeping below the threshold.  

I suspect that many riders scoff at this concern because they may not be feeling any pain when cycling.  But we start off with quite a bit of cartilage and over time it wears down.  As long as there is enough, we may not feel pain.  It's only when significant amounts of damage are done that we may realize that there is a problem.  

As our family, friends, and ourselves age, a big determinant of our ability to engage in physical activity is the condition of our joints.  Shouldn't we do everything we can to minimize the wear so that we can have more years of enjoyable cycling and other activities?

So in my world view, everyone should be clipped in or locked into their pedals as best as possible in order to pull back and up when pedaling so that the down force is reduced.  Now it's important to be sure that shoes, insoles, cleats, and really the whole system is "right" so that everything is lined up properly.  For many (such as myself), that means a custom orthotic is required.  If you're locked/clipped in but things are not optimized, you may actually do more damage than if you rode "free".  So it's really worth the effort to meet with a fit specialist and optimize things.  And if the bottom of your shoes wear unevenly, I'd make a beeline to someone in your area who makes custom orthotics.  Orthotics are a bargain compared with knee replacement!

Now there is one time when I do run without clips/straps/clipless pedals - that's when I'm mountain biking.  The spike pedal with soft shoe combo allows a smidge more "contact" with the pedal, but lets me put a foot down more quickly than I can when otherwise attached.  The ability to be unattached fast and avoid a spill is worth the wear damage to my knees.  But by being attached at all other times when cycling, I keep my knees healthy enough that I can cheat a bit and go "free" once in awhile.

Recently, I've taken to using some old Cunningham WTB flip tabs.  These simple widgets enable quicker foot entry with toe clips (MKS has their own version I think).  I run the straps loose, but my feet go in and out of the pedals so easily that I can get some of the clip/strap benefit even when run loose,  yet I can make a super quick exit.

In addition to selecting the right "equipment" to be locked into you're pedals, you can also work on your pedal stroke.  If you put more effort into pulling back and pulling up when you pedal, you can reduce the wear and tear on your knees.  And at the same time, you're reducing the peak moment on your bike's crank arms - so if they're vintage and you're concerned that they could fail, you're reducing the risk (or at least making it happen at a later time).  How cool is that?

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The Rarest Campagnolo Dropouts?

It's time to get the Boulder Bicycle Blog up and running again!  

Today lets look at something really uncommon for you Campy fans.  On a recent trip, I found a pair of Campagnolo dropouts that are plug in style.  I've looked on the internet, and a simple search does not bring up any photos of them.  If you go deep you can find an image here and there.  But these are obscure.  Some very famous framebuilders I know have never held them.

Why am I so fascinated by these?  Well, in the late 1970's when I started thinking about framebuilding, I thought silver brazing was great (and easy) and brass seemed difficult.  Plus, if you were a user of Reynolds 753 (not me) you were told not to heat up the tubing to the point where brass would flow, while at the same time you needed to do something to put those dropouts into place.  So a plug in dropout that doesn't have large gaps to fill like a typical dropout requires (enabling the use of silver braze material) seems like a problem solver for sure!

Look carefully below at the braze gaps on a Team Raleigh 753 frame - even Ilkeston had difficulty.  

So the Campy plug in dropouts were a way to use cooler-melting silver.  It also speeds up the building process too.  That's why so many builders went to the easy-to-use plug in style when other companies started making them. 

The shape of the Campy plug in dropouts is a bit weird - Mark Nobilette says it's kinda Swiss looking.  Maybe Campy looked at the back of a Teledyne Titan for inspiration?  Below is a Teledyne rear dropout.

So if the Campy plug-in dropout is so cool and such a problem solver, why don't we see these more often?  I'm wondering if they had reliability issues.  Unlike typical Campy dropouts which are forged, the plug in style is cast.  Maybe the sharp edges led to some failures. 

Perhaps someone knows more and we'll see some info in the comments!