Cinelli’s 2011 lineup sees a few model upgrades like the Best Of, above, some spec updates and the entirely new mid-range Saetta lineup.
The Pro Best Of frame up top isn’t their lightest bike, but it’s their premier example of carbon and bike building technology. It’s a sloping geometry frame built with co-curing, hand-wrapped Columbus XLR8R Plus 3K twill carbon fibers and tubes. The rear triangle has been redesigned to drop weight, and the Best Of now sports a tapered head tube. Altogether, the frame dropped 200g from the prior year and now comes in at 1050g (Medium w/ uncut seatmast).
It gets a Columbus Genius tapered carbon fork (390g), Pressfit BB30 and integrated seatmast with a new carbon wedge system to mount the seat clamp. It’s available in two colorways, including the black up above as a frameset for $3,700. Or, you can break the bank and special order the full Shimano Di2 bike above with carbon Dura-Ace wheels, color-matched carbon stem and bar for a mere $14,000.
Check the rest after the break…
2011 Bianca Team colorway.
2010 Best Of Rossa colorway, possibly no longer available but pretty to look at and good for comparative purposes. Notice the internal versus external cable routing from last year to this year.
The 2011 Cinelli Strato has a tapered headtube with the same Columbus Genius tapered carbon fork as the Best Of. The Strato has a frame weight of just 950g (size M – 53cm), but they claim it has the highest stiffness to weight ratio of any Cinelli bike ever. Besides the Columbus carbon in a sloping, monocoque design, the stiffness comes from a lateral rib structured top tube and oversized box-section seat- and downtubes meeting at a fairly large BB30 bottom bracket junction. It comes with a 68mm English threaded BB insert adapter, too. Lastly, it has CNC’d dropouts with replaceable derailleur hanger and internal cable routing. It comes in the White Rouge Blu (white, red, blue) colorway shown above as well as a mostly black with dark blue accents paint scheme. Frameset (frame, fork, headset) is $3,500
The 2011 Pro Estrada gets the new Columbus Solida fork, but is otherwise the same save for the addition of a little more red in the paint schemes. It also comes with a BB30 bottom bracket and the 68mm adapter. Frame weight is a mere 860g (for real!). Frameset only (frame, fork, headset) is $2,800.
The Pro Estrada is also available in the Bianca Team Replica colorway.
The Saetta Sprint and Saetta (below) are brand new bikes for 2011, using an entirely new carbon mold. We’ve had a brief test ride on one and covered the specs and frame details more thoroughly in this post.
In a nutshell, the Sprint uses a higher grade, lighter carbon to come in at 1100g for the frame versus 1220g for the Saetta, and it gets a better Columbus Solida fork versus the Cinelli Saetta fork.
The Saetta Sprint is available only as a frameset (including headset and fork) for $2,300 in either blue or red.
The regular Saetta comes in two complete bike versions: Campy Veloce for $2,999 or Shimano 105 for $2,499, and either is available in this white/red colorway or a similar one that replaces the red with blue.
If you’re more of an alloy fan, the 2011 Cinelli Experience offers up a complete bike with Shimano 105 for $1,999. Frameset, which includes the Cinelli Saetta fork and a headset, is just $799. The frame is a triple butted Columbus 7005 T6 alloy with oversized, variable section downtube to reduce flex and specially shaped seat stays to keep the bike super stiff. Frame weight is 1400g, fork is 565g.
It’s also available in silver/white.
Jumping back up the price curve…way up…is their most expensive frame: The Columbus XCr stainless steel frame. It’s available as a frame/fork combo only for $4,500 and weighs in at 1430g/360g with the Columbus Minimal monocoque carbon fork. We featured this bike a while back and in person it’s nothing short of stunning. It’s not new, but seriously, we wouldn’t be right in the head if we didn’t show it again.
Cinelli’s U.S. rep Ben Coffey explains thusly why you’d want to spend $4,500 on a frame:
“It’s a forever type bike. The stainless steel used is 10x stronger than titanium, and it’ll remain corrosion free forever.”
We’d like to add this: Because you’ll likely never see another one on your local group ride.
We also covered some of these bikes at Interbike if you like to see real-life, honest to goodness photos of things next to your studio glamour shots.
