Cinelli Aliante Frame

Price Paid:  $1500.00 at in italy

Favorite Ride:
perugia, italy

Bike Setup:
campy '04 10, american classic wheels, veloflex tires, litespeed carbon seatpost, fsa triple crank, kestryl bar

Summary:
'03 aliante- columbus xlr8r tubing, carbon fiber muscle fork, seatstay, and chainstay, compact medium, 1211g (weighed on a ceritifed scale), seat tube 1 3/8". More shock absorption then my other ride a coppi starship, and more aggressive (hard to believe). Very responsive- reacts 2 steps ahead of you- took me 1 few hundred miles to get used to- now seems like the norm. This aggresiveness (not instability) maybe because of the compact design and oversize seat tube. My coppi (traditional geometry-55cm) now feels very relaxing and secure. For comparision my coppi makes my wife's cannondale seem extremely sluggish, and heavy. typical italian paint- chips- but very sexy design (orange) had to put a few coats of clear coat on the chainstay, now is just fine. absolutely no frameflex- a real rocket. wgt- 14lbs 15oz.

Strengths:
very aggressive and responsive, light wgt, sexy looking

Weaknesses:
would have preferred starship tubing rather then xlr8r-(moser makes the same frame with starship) would have saved 4oz- but on the other hand my experience with starship is that it dents amazingly easy, xlr8r maybe somewhat better.

Similar Products Used:
cannondale cad3, coppi starship '01 (all starship aluminum-no carbon fiber)

Price Paid:  $650.00 at ital-tecno.com

Bike Setup:
I have the Medium size frameset, 120cm stem, and 42cm bar. It fits me very well. I built it using Ultegra bottom bracket and FSA Gossamer crankset. Wheels are my old Mavic Open 4CD and Mavic hubs. Tires are Continental Ultra 2000 (700x23).

Previous ride is a 52cm(c-c) mid 90's Specialized Epic carbon frame (120cm stem and 40cm bar) with all Mavic components (non-electronic) and wheels.

Summary:
This review is for the 2003 Cinelli Proxima.

There is no category for this frameset so I will place it here. There are very few reviews of Cinelli frames that I can find before purchasing, so I feel the need to provide mine for others.

The build quality of this frame is not great - the welds are not sanded down, and the paint does not look durable. I have the matte black which has no clear coat, so who knows how long the paint and decals will last.

The aluminium frame is lightweight, about or less than 3 lbs. The frame alone rings like a bell when tapped, so I thought it would give a harsh ride. Surprisingly, the frame is very forgiving, but yet very stiff when ridden. So far, I'm impressed.

Strengths:
lightweight. Surprisingly forgiving and very stiff.

Weaknesses:
Poor build quality - no clear coat on matte black and over decals. But "looks" great - we'll see how long that will last.

Similar Products Used:
Specialized Epic Carbon, Allez cro-mo, Trek aluminium, Litespeed aluminium and titanium, Merlin.