Tag Archives: cinelli

Vivalo Touring, Sportif and Road Bikes

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I’ve always been fascinated by non-Keirin bikes built by Japanese frame builders who are famous for their track bikes. All of the most well-known builders of NJS track bikes began their careers in the late 1960s – early 1970s, when the bicycle touring craze was sweeping the world and Japan in particular. They apprenticed in shops that built road and touring bikes, and many of them built these kinds of bikes early in their careers. Touring and sportif bikes are often custom-made for clients, and are expected to include the kinds of beautiful details and high level of finish common with this kind of luxury item.

Shuichi Kusaka, the master builder behind the Vivalo brand, built a number of road, touring, and sportif customs. In the past 15 years, I have only seen a handful, and in this article I’ll be highlighting a few of these lovely bicycles. Read on to learn more!

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My First Hand-Made Frame!

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simon_1stframe_01

So it’s been literally a year, to the day, since I’ve updated this blog.  But I haven’t been idle on the bike front!  In fact, 2015 was quite a year for me and bicycles, one where I finally achieved a long-held dream of mine: to build my own frames.  Thanks to the help and mentoring of Lance Mercado at Squarebuilt Cycles here in Brooklyn, I built my first frame this past March.

Read on for all of the details! Continue reading →

1981 Mercier Salève Velo Course Restored

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mercier_01

It’s been several months since I’ve done a write up on one of my restoration projects, but now I’m back and I have a whole stable full to show off.  First in line is this 1980 Mercier Salève “velo de course”.  A mid-range road racer as seen in this catalog from the early 1980’s, it features Vitus tubing and drop-outs.  I like the paint and logo schemes of the early 80’s Mercier bikes more than any of the other eras.  It’s restrained but the blue paint glows with a subtle sparkle.  Read on for more…

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Chip’s Trek Soho S

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The Trek Soho S is a very popular choice for anyone looking for an affordable single-speed commuter bicycle that combines quality features with a low-key but stylish design.  I had one a few years ago, which I modified a bit to include road bike drop bars for more hand positions.

Chip came across the post I put up in 2008 detailing these changes and customized his own Soho S in a similar fashion:

“I ride a 2010 Trek Soho S as my daily commuter around Raleigh NC. This weekend I installed some drop bars, Cane Creek cross top levers, and a Cinelli stem after seeing your post. I am loving the setup so far! And best part is I was able to secure all the parts for around $50 locally.  I’ve also upgraded to Koolstop Salmon pads (awesome), and also installed some MKS touring pedals. Next up will probably be a new saddle.”

I think it looks great, although I’m probably a bit biased.  The drop bars bring out the Trek race bike heritage that is part of the Soho S design, and make it more comfortable for long rides as well as sprinting.  Thanks for the pics and write-up, Chip!

1989 Cinelli “Mens Sana In Corpore Sano” Corsa

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I just finished restoring this 56cm Cinelli Corsa, serial number M9141, after scooping it up on eBay.  This is a fairly mysterious Cinelli for a number of reasons.  First of all, I haven’t been able to find much information on it online, other than a post on the Italian MilanoFixed blog that didn’t shed any light on its origins.  It’s made from Columbus Cromor tubing, placing it in the mid-range of Cinelli road bikes.   This blog placed it as a 1989 model, alongside the “Deus Ex Machina” time-trial model which has similar lugs and pantographs.

The bike came with a mish-mash of parts which I replaced or upgraded (Shimano 600 cranks, 105 RD, Campagnolo FD).  Now the bike has a full Shimano 600 tri-color groupset, with a Gipiemme seatpost and Cinelli bars and stem.  Wheelset is Mavic Open 4 CD rims laced to Shimano 600 hubs.  I replaced the original lime green Selle Rolls saddle and bottle cages with a new white Turbo and matching cages.  I refreshed the lime green bar tape and cables with pink cork tape and cable housing.

The phrase “Mens Sana In Corpore Sano” means “a healthy mind in a healthy body” and is featured prominently on both sides of the top tube.  It’s not a decal, but rather part of the factory paint job.  All of the lugs are stamped with the Cinelli “C” as well as pantographs on the seatstay caps, fork crown, and cast into the bottom bracket.  I think the nicest feature of this bike are the fork crown lugs, which have a swept-back “wing” shape.

Click here to visit the Flickr set for this bike.

Eddy Merckx 7-11 Corsa Restoration

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photo by Alan R. Tansey - alan.r.tansey@gmail.com

After several months, I have finally finished my restoration of the Eddy Merckx Corsa in Team 7-11 colors that I first acquired last year.  I started by stripping off the worn and non-period-correct Ultegra group that was on it, and sent the frame to Allan Wanta for a complete re-paint.

Allan is the real hero of this project.  His work is impeccable – from the paint to the decals, he did a truly perfect job on the bike.  It took about seven weeks from when I shipped the frame to him to when I got it back.  He was great about communication, updating me on the progress of the restoration and even sending me pictures.  The price for this work was very affordable as well – about 50% less than all the other quotes I got!  He gets my top recommendation and I will certainly send more work his way in the future.  Check out the pictures after the jump to see lots of up-close, hi-res shots.

To properly complete this restoration, I slowly collected up a complete Dura-Ace 7400 group on eBay.  Most of the group was New Old Stock, with little to no marks on it at all.  Being a fan of brifters over downtube-mounted shifters, I did drift just a little out of period by including the Dura Ace STI shifters from 1990.  The photos I’ve seen of the 7-11 team’s bikes don’t include these shifters but I’ve seen a number of other 7-11 Merckx’s using them, and more importantly I’m gonna ride this baby a lot so I wanted to go with what I like.  And it doesn’t disappoint – it’s fast and aggressive ride, with the trademark stiffness of Columbus TSX steel.  I feel like this restoration has really brought out the racing spirit of this bike.

The rest of the parts used were:

  • Modolo EVEN ergo bars
  • Selle Italia Flite saddle
  • Time ATAC pedals (Eddy Merckx Podio pedals and shoes coming soon)
  • Cinelli stem with Eddy Merckx pantograph
  • NOS Casiraghi brake cable
  • Matric ISO rims
  • Fizik Microtex bar tape

Alan Tansey was kind enough to volunteer his awesome photo skills to take a great set of pictures of this beast.  Check out the full photo gallery and specs after the jump…

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1983 Colnago Super Pista

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It took about five months to complete, but I have finally finished restoring this gorgeous vintage Colnago Super Pista.  It’s a 57cm in original paint. My research points to it being a 1983 model – this guess is based off of looking at all the Colnago Pistas I could find online, and the one that had the exact matching decal set and paintjob was a 1983.  It has Columbus tubing and the fork is the flat crown model, chromed, with engraved Colnago “C” and clover.

The original story on how I got it is here, but since then I spent a lot of time collecting up the right parts and slowly cleaning and polishing it up.  While fixing up the Campy lockring with my Dremel tool, I got some steel in my eye that required three separate procedures to completely remove.  So there was definitely sweat and tears invested in this project!

Alan Tansey was kind enough to volunteer his awesome photo skills to take a great set of pictures of this beast.  Check out the full photo gallery and specs after the jump…

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