Cinelli Rampichino Airone Mountainbike 1985

Gravel grinding on specially developed bicycles is not exactly a new trend.
In the 1980s, when the Mountainbike boom was rolling from the US to Europe, Italian bicycle manufacturers were eager to introduce their own offroad bikes.

One of the first to develop a successful model was Cinelli.
Their Cinelli Rampichino, named after the short-toed treecreeper, a climbing bird, was perfectly adopted for rides on the rough surfaces and steep ramps of Apennines and Alps.

It might have been the bird's name of the bike which interested Italian's equivalent of the National Geographic, the Airone (Heron), in testing these bikes. It might as well just have been their interest in discovering the mountainous nature on a bicycle.
At least they must have been very impressed. Their March 1985 edition featured a report of a MTB journey through the alps which was undertaken using Cinelli's Rampichino bikes on century old mule paths and gravel roads only used for military patrols.
Obviously the Airone journalists fell in love with this way of touring. They immediately sealed a deal with Cinelli, to provide them with a limited number of specially built Rampichino bikes which could only be ordered by Airone readers, using a coupon which had to be cut out of the magazine.

We are very happy to present to you our Airone Cinelli no. 329 from 1985.
What is really cool about this bike is not only the high quality parts and the way it rides, but also the pretty much original setup in which it comes. As proof, this bike includes the very exemplar of Airone magazine from which the code card was taken to order this bike.

The frame has been made from specially butted Columbus tubes and most of the parts are from Shimano's XT M700 groupset.
Taking a look at the handlebar, you are in for a sweet treat - the rare, strong cross version is a thing of beauty!

This fantastic military-green mountainbike is a great piece of cycling history and probably the missing link in most Cinelli collections.