It’d be a shame to rock up at road.cc Italy week at the Hotel Belvedere without at least one nice Italian bike to test. And this year we’ve got our hands on the most purple bike you’re likely to see today: The Cinelli Nemo TIG.
First off, feast your eyes on its purpley goodness. It really is very purple indeed, possibly even more so in the flesh. The metallic finish has a lovely deep lustre. It’s a beautiful frame; if you like purple, obviously. If you don’t like purple you can have it in silver, red, black or yellow. Get the purple one though.
But enough about the colour. Underneath the paint it’s a TIG-welded steel frame, made from Columbus Spirit tubing. “Steel is back”, Cinelli say. It never went anywhere though. You can make a lovely responsive frame from steel and our inaugural rides on the Nemo suggest Cinelli have done precisely that.
It’s a classic-looking machine with some modern touches: The head tube flares to a 1.5″ bearing at the bottom and the frame is matched with a new carbon monocoque fork that’s painted to match the frame. Round profiles are used extensively but the down tube is flattened where it meets the PressFit bottom bracket shell, and the chainstays are heavily shaped too, with a deep vertical section to cope with the drivetrain forces. The deeply-coved dropouts are designed to “provide an ideal surface for welding, avoiding stress concentrations”, and the cabling is classically and simply external.
Our Nemo has gone full Italian in the build, too. The groupset is Campagnolo’s 11-speed Athena, with a 52/36 chainset and a 12-27 cassette, which is just enough gears for what is a pretty hilly area. Just.
Cinelli provide the bars, stem and seatpost from their VAI range, and the saddle is a Selle Italia X1. The wheels are 35mm section Miche Altur, topped off with 25mm Vittoria Rubino Pro Speed tyres.
Ok, the Lezyne bottle cage isn’t Italian. But I brought that with me. If I’d been thinking, I’d have brought an Elite one. Never mind.
We don’t have the road.cc scales of truth here but the frame has a stated weight of 1,800g which will be for a medium size. Our XL, in this build, probably comes in at around 8.5kg – not the featheriest of bikes then, but if you’re looking for something pretty, with classic lines and a traditional steel ride, this should be one for the list. We’ve already taken it up to a 1,300m Giro mountain stage finish and pointed it at some of Europe’s patchiest tarmac on the back roads round here, and we’ll have lots to report when we publish a full review, which will be soon!
Read more about the Cinelli Nemo TIG (in Italian)
Contact Chicken Cyclekit for Cinelli dealers in the UK
15 thoughts on “Just in: Cinelli Nemo TIG”
Is it available in purple?
Is it available in purple?
What frame size are you using
What frame size are you using Dave?
othello wrote:
59cm
It’s a bit confusing of Cinelli to call this bike: Nemo.
Columbus used to make a steel Nivacrom tubeset called Nemo. I thought they’d re-introduced it; no such luck though.
Lost my interest at press fit
Lost my interest at press fit bottom bracket…
stubiggar wrote:
Same here. I can’t believe they’ve specced this idiotic BB standard on this bike.
stubiggar wrote:
Exactly
stubiggar wrote:
So true, why do that with a steel frame? Are bike buyers clamouring for press fit? No they are not.Given a straight choice on the same bike, most people would go for threaded, but the manufacturers are forcing press fit as it saves a few pennies.
wycombewheeler wrote:
Lost my interest at press fit bottom bracket…
— wycombewheeler So true, why do that with a steel frame? Are bike buyers clamouring for press fit? No they are not.Given a straight choice on the same bike, most people would go for threaded, but the manufacturers are forcing press fit as it saves a few pennies.— stubiggar
I saw the prototype of this bike with a BSA threaded BB. I ordered one straight away, then the frame was delayed as I heard they were changing the bb to Press Fit to keep up with todays standards.
It wasnt something that Cinelli wanted to do but the modern market demands it so it happened.
Mine arrives soon, I hope it doesnt creak as if it does I’ll be glueing the bugger in.
Lovelo Mark wrote:
Very nice, hopefully it looks as stunning in real life as it does in the pictures!
Lovelo Mark wrote:
Who? Threaded BBs are available and people want them.
I wonder if bike shops are the driving force as press fit bearings are not so easily replaceable by the user.
Pretty but it looks like they
Pretty but it looks like they filed the welds…
I have no experience with
I have no experience with Press Fit bottom brackets, but I can see several steel frames that I really like have this bottom bracket standard (Genesis Volare 853, Nemo, Condor Super Acciaio etc.). I heard lots of you guys speak of creaking and large tolerances (between the BB and the shell). Doesn’t the likes of Loctite (some number) help?
Stupid question maybe, but would numerous BB changes increase the tolerance even more?
Btw, Nemo looks amazing. Cherry bomb colour is also very cool!
Thanks!
“You can make a lovely
“You can make a lovely responsive frame from steel”. And a range of other materials.
I’ve got PF BBs on a couple of bikes and they don’t creak (maybe I should add “yet”). Also, there are now a number of manufacturers offering PF BBs that have a threaded interface, where the bearing cups thread into a centre tube (Hope, Praxis I think). Although a bit more expensive to start with at least with the Hope version you can replace the bearings as and wehn you need to rather than the whoel unit.
I’ve had no problems with
I’ve had no problems with BB386 in over 3500 km. Not a creak. The whole bearing is contained inside the BB tube, unlike some of the other PF standards where the bearing hangs outside the BB tube.