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TECH NEWS

Cinelli to launch Hobo steel all-rounder

Prototype has just proved its credentials in Tour d’Afrique

Italy’s Cinelli will have a new steel bike called the Hobo in their 2014 line-up and three riders have just ridden the prototype in the 12,000km (7,500 miles) 2013 Tour d’Afrique.

The Hobo is a new steel bike designed for road/off-road rides over long distances. The Tour d’Afrique from Cairo, Egypt, to Cape Town, South Africa, safely qualifies on that score.

Cinelli say that the idea of the Hobo is, “To equip all riders willing to test themselves on long and great distances, on every kind of ground, off-road and on-road.”

It is made from a Columbus Life triple butted tubeset (the ends of the tubes having different wall thicknesses to the middle section and to one another). The walls are as little as 0.4mm thick in parts.

Cinelli haven’t released too many more details yet although, as you can see, the Hobo comes with mounts for cantilever brakes rather than disc brakes (assuming this prototype is the version that eventually makes it to full production) and there’s plenty of clearance for chunky tyres. Cable routing is along the top tube rather than via the down tube and you get a full complement of rack eyelets.

We’re not sure that many buyers will be riding the Hobo on the Tour d’Afrique like Chas Christiansen, Lucas Brunelle and Dario Toso just did between 11 January and 11 May, but we can imagine the bike being used for all kinds of adventure touring and plenty more besides.

That’s about all the info we have for the moment. We’ll give you more when the bike is eventually launched.

In the meantime, keep your eye on the Cinelli website

 

Mat has been in cycling media since 1996, on titles including BikeRadar, Total Bike, Total Mountain Bike, What Mountain Bike and Mountain Biking UK, and he has been editor of 220 Triathlon and Cycling Plus. Mat has been road.cc technical editor for over a decade, testing bikes, fettling the latest kit, and trying out the most up-to-the-minute clothing. We send him off around the world to get all the news from launches and shows too. He has won his category in Ironman UK 70.3 and finished on the podium in both marathons he has run. Mat is a Cambridge graduate who did a post-grad in magazine journalism, and he is a winner of the Cycling Media Award for Specialist Online Writer. Now over 50, he's riding road and gravel bikes most days for fun and fitness rather than training for competitions.

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12 comments

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Bikeylikey | 10 years ago
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You often do this, road cc: tantalize us with a 'pre-launch' feature to whet the appetite with 'look what's coming but you can't have it or even know that much about it. Not yet, not yet. Soon. Wait...'

A close up of the whole bike, and of some bits in more detail, would be good. It would also be good to wait until you have cost of the bike before you do these tease pieces, it's an essential bit of info for most people.

Dependent on what the Cinelli does cost, you could probably get the same frame (materials, geometry etc)built by a local independent frame builder for less money. I do like Cinelli, but the steel one I had for ten years and just sold was overpriced, not especially well made, and the paint was ridiculously fragile, chipping and scratching at the slightest touch. I've heard the same from another Cinelli steel frame owner, and from a cycling journalist that most Italian paint finishes are fragile. If it does apply to this Cinelli, it's not what you want on a 'do it all' on-off road bike.

The cantis are great, it's one of the features that would swing it for me. Lighter and simpler than discs, less to go wrong, easier to fix if they do, no disc pads rubbing.

On balance, then, I WANT IT, NOW

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Jerm | 10 years ago
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That's my concern too. It looks like exactly what I want but it's all very price dependant. That and being available as a frameset rather than complete bike.

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mrmo | 10 years ago
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I also wonder how much, hope it is not priced like a supercorsa!!!

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Jerm | 10 years ago
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This is very decent steel. Look on the Cinelli and Columbus websites. It's aimed at competition. According to Columbus a complete set of 8 tubes is 1150g. Even when you add in the extras this should make for a light frame.

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Yennings | 10 years ago
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I love Cinellis but where are the disc brakes? Think I'll stick to the Surly...

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mrmo replied to Yennings | 10 years ago
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Yennings wrote:

I love Cinellis but where are the disc brakes? Think I'll stick to the Surly...

Not bothered by the disc brakes, cantis are cheap and reliable, more interested in whether this is being made out a decent steel. Far too many people are getting hung up on frames being steel. The reality is good steel and bad steel are nothing like each other.

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Argos74 | 10 years ago
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 13 It climbs trees! I want a bike that climbs trees!

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rorymcclelland replied to Argos74 | 10 years ago
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I'm going to call it 'The Goat'.

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Jerm | 10 years ago
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I want.

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Municipal Waste | 10 years ago
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Good looking bike. Is it Italian made?

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Ghedebrav | 10 years ago
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I want this VERY much.

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jhamlin38 | 10 years ago
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sounds like a really fun ride. Very cool they made a bike for it. Cinelli being innovative.

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