Renaissance Cinelli

Bob Freeman, restoration maestro at Elliot Bay Cycles here in Seattle, has finished a tour de force. His just-completed 1961 Cinelli is perhaps the nicest example I've seen. It's an amazing job. Restorations like this have many twists and turns, tight spots, and obstacles. But when the finished machine glows like this one, you know it was worth it. 48 lovely images of the bike are here.
© Bob Freeman

I have to admire his rim choice. Bob's available to spec and build wood rims for any application. Contact him here. Wood is not the likely original equipment for the bike, but Italian and genuine. The wood rim era closed out in the late 1940's, early '50's. Undoubtedly, Cino Cinelli himself raced on wood and his frames frequently wore them.
© Bob Freeman

The sleek green color from the Cinelli catalog, really puts this bike at home in the Northwest. Love to see the Universal Mod 61 brakes. I got a set in 1964 when my Dad found me a bent Bianchi. We straightened the frame at home and I eventually took it to college. That bike was wrecked but I kept the brakes and installed them stubbornly on a Peugeot PX-10. The PX-10 is long gone, but I kept the brakes. My daughter, Kristina, used them last year on her city bike, here in Seattle. It's not only bike frames whose stories are worth recalling.
© Bob Freeman

Before leaving this immaculate bike, I must pay respects to the pantheon of Italian cycling greats. The generation that suffered WWII contained a unique type of industrial and cultural superman. These guys raced, smoked, drank, drove fast, and gave us the core aesthetics of the cycling we enjoy today. Cino Cinelli (1916-2001) was a giant among them. A successful competitor, his elegant bikes affected me more than any others when I first fell for cycling. It helped that his biggest US seller was Spence Wolf, then in nearby Cupertino. Cinelli's string of bold designs went on for years. Unica saddles, clipless pedals, classic bar and stem designs, modular hubs, and racy promotion.
Visions of beauty.

Gino Bartali (1914-2000) was another icon of this era. His heroic life has been honored in a new book. Here's the story.
I was very fortunate to meet him in Milan in 1991. A tiny, intense, and friendly guy. The era would be incomplete without Tullio Campagnolo (1901-1983), a gruff and influential innovator. There's also Faliero Masi (1908-1999), an aristocratic and gracious spirit who visited California a number of times to bless our struggling efforts. Other big influences on the period include Fausto Coppi (1919-1960), who left us long before we could have met. Another supremely generous spirit is Fiorenzo Magni (1920-), who raced wood rims as late as 1950 and recently contributed to a magnificent cycling museum.

These pioneers seemed larger than life, like the titans of the Hollywood screen. They had peers in other vehicle industries; Enzo Ferrari (1898-1988), the Ducati brothers, etc.. For a wide eyed American kid, the confidence, innovation, quality, and aesthetic power of these people, both in product and in life, was inspirational. Italians continue to hugely influence cycling, with Colnago, DeRosa, Pinarello, Sidi, Vittoria, Selle Italia, etc. Our memory is not their vivid swagger but their success passing the legacy to subsequent generations. Whenever Italian cycling seems doomed, on the road or industrially, they manage to flourish. Maybe it's the Chianti.
Longtime Cinelli rider, Dave Coward, loaned me one of these signs that hung at Wheelsmith in Palo Alto for 25 years.

Some Spring News

We just added the German edition of Jobst classic Bicycle Wheel book. How about that? It sort of dropped off the map, but needlessly. Jobst was always proud of his heritage and took annual trips to ride the great mountains of the German speaking regions: Switzerland, Austria, Germany. This edition lacks mention of Wheelsmith in its acknowledgments. But who cares?

Gutes Buch.

Our price for the Ghisallo Medallion just rose. This, in spite of the Euro/dollar descent. New price is USD$31.50, up from $26. Please know that these can only be obtained from the Rector at the Ghisallo Chapel and the Church determines the appropriate price. We learned, for the first time, that these are silver plated, solid brass forgings.

Precious Medal

I was just sent a pair of hubs, two completely warped and wasted wood rims, and a set of spokes. They began in a shaft drive bike from 1901, now being restored by Steven Perelman. Thanks to the NY Times videographer, the capable Patrick Farrell, wheel restoration is now in Seattle. I'll need to manufacture duplicates to the spokes and nipples. Then we'll build them into contemporary (but period authentic) Ghisallo wood rims. The old rims have certainly bit the dust.

112 years later...

Why bother you with this? I am completely blown away by the hubs, spokes, and nipples. After nearly 40 years in this pursuit, how can I be seeing for the first time such unexpected beauty? This is the REASON to rise each morning, to meet the unexpected. Inspiration comes in unsteady doses, with unpredictable timing.

The spokes are chrome plated, ultra-thin 1.6mm (0.064") wire that ends in tiny, perfectly shaped spheres. Each sphere has a dainty pointed extension opposite the wire from which it's formed. These spheres engage the hub shell, rather than the familiar J-bend elbow of our times. The shafts are butted up to 2mm (0.08") right as they enter the nipple.

Direct pull with a difference.

The nipples are 25mm length. Ultra thin walled, they feature a close fitting neck at the spoke entry. This tapered girdle becomes a two-flat wrench surface before assuming a round shape up to its saucer head. Not so much a marvel as the product of an artist. Why design nipples so difficult to make? Well, artists can be forces of nature and this nipple, while it may be simple imitation, looks like a day dream.

Long and shapely.

The hub that receives these wonderful spokes is also extraordinary. In the front, it's a thin walled tube with special recesses to accept the incoming spokes at a tangential angle, Together with pressed in outboard bearing cups, the hub weighs 100g. The rear hub is an amazing coaster brake with similar features. It deserves a post of its own.

Hub simplicity.

Can't wait to make new spokes of polished stainless and connect them to Ghisallo rims. The result will be quite dazzling, especially because they will give "wings" to a special bike that hasn't been ridden for a lifetime. I'll report on the outcome. Stay tuned.

Elasticity

Few mechanisms are built at the edge of feasibility. It's expensive to make stuff and we require some measure of reliability. Hence, over-design. However, cycling and aviation seem to push those limits like no one else. For very different reasons, each fights an uphill battle to succeed. Human safety is a big consideration for both. For more on the cycling-aviation relationship, check here.

A flying sensation is common to both.

When you push structures to the limit you deal with materials: their strength, stiffness, endurance, hardness, thermal properties, elasticity, etc. With bicycle wheels, arguably the leanest and most efficient structure in general use, this is particularly true. Lately, I've been reflecting on elasticity.

A bike wheel consists of pneumatic tire, rim, spokes, and hub. The elastic behavior of the tire is easy to grasp. A rubber coated textile is soft in the hand until inflated. With substantial air pressure, a tire becomes firm and capable of supporting the vehicle at speed. If struck with high force, the elastic nature of the tire enables it to deform momentarily, absorbing shock and avoiding damage.

The rest of the wheel - aluminum, carbon fiber, steel - seems rigid and inelastic by comparison. No rubber here. If you closely examine the dynamic performance of a wheel you discover a world of elastic movement that is core to the structure's effectiveness.

Hub Flex
Hubs seem to be simple spools that rotate and connect spokes and frames. In fact, they withstand many forces extreme enough to change their shapes. The trusty quick release develops huge compression force, approaching 1,000lbs. The hub axle actually contracts with this force and hub designers need tricks to keep the bearings running free.

Spoke tension on an aluminum hub stretches the body, enlarging the bearing seat. A good fitting bearing can fall out loosely once spokes are tensioned. The bearing seat must be made undersized to compensate for tensioned induced deformation.

Lateral forces at the rim become magnified due to geometry once they reach the hub. Larger diameter axles are sought to help keep the hub from flexing.

Spoke Stretch
No bicycle component is regularly stressed so close to its failure point as spokes. The static load of a spoke can be 1/3 of its breaking strength. This requires spoke wire to be extremely strong and uniform. Tensile strengths and consistency are the highest in all of engineering for these materials.

Under the extreme tensile load of a bike wheel, spokes stretch. A straight gauge steel spoke will elongate more than 1mm during a wheel build. Butted spokes stretch more and it affects comfort, fatigue life, and nipple retention. The elasticity of spokes is part of the calculation of a successful bike wheel.

Rim Deformation
Rims, especially aluminum, are built to be rigid. Loaded with 20 to 32 tensioned spokes, they become an amazingly firm, almost brittle structure. But to look closely, rims elastically deform in dramatic ways.

When spokes are attached, a huge compressional force is applied to the rim hoop. It can be 600lbs, measured at a rim joint. Due to the small mass and density of the rim, the hoop actually becomes temporarily smaller. Clincher tire pressure pushes rim beads outward. You can use calipers across the brake track to see those surfaces change. With pressure, parallel brake tracks become angled more than one degree.

Inflation pressure spreads the rim at the brake which affects the rim "belly" below. For many rims, the change to the belly is enough to increase spoke length and change tension over 20%. Deflate the tire and brake track springs back and spoke tension rises.

With riding, all these elastic deformations combine to define wheel behavior. It's not just the tire that's in constant elastic motion. A structure as light as a standard bicycle wheel is a complex, dynamic structure. No wonder there are so many opinions and observations about the zillion combinations of components, spoke tension, tire pressure, and riding.

The more I learn about wheels, the more secrets are revealed. I discovered the elastic properties of spokes while studying them at Wheelsmith in the 1980's. Now it's clear that all wheel components have elastic properties that affect their neighbors and wheel performance. This elasticity is substantial and you should bear its contribution in mind whenever designing, building, or riding these magnificent structures.

Beautiful MTB wheels

A gorgeous MTB from FRO Imports in Italy. Paolo Faccini is a good friend of the Ghisallo people.

Funk

The bike is their new Funk La Ruta frame and the rim finish is D, dark. We don't stock this finish but you can order it. Allow about 4 weeks.

Stunning

Paolo says "we are already stunned by its beauty." Me, too!