Mystery Cinelli brake part

[smontanaro]

I bought this from eBay just because it said, "Cinelli." It's some sort of brake part, maybe to boost or help return cantilever brake arms to their starting position. It seems to pretty clearly be missing a spring. I'd love to see a picture and description of the complete part. My Google-fu has failed me so far.

https://flic.kr/p/U6jvwM

(Apologies for the non-image image. Still trying to figure out Flickr app on my phone.)

[pbarry]

Try another upload, please. The original looks like a frame from the Exorcist. ;)

[smontanaro]

Okay, reach for a real computer. Is this visible?

https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4273/34190745773_4ae0762047_b.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/U6jvwM)

[pbarry]

Nicely done. :beer:

Looks like a bmx brake or old school brake stiffener. Cinelli and Campag both made bmx parts.

[smontanaro]

Thanks. I assume if I never find a picture of a complete part, it can just go up on my tool pegboard. :)

About the possible BMX connection, this looks like if it is some sort of brake part that it would be for a center pull or cantilever. Did BMX bikes ever have such brakes? (BMX was after my childhood.)

[Hindmost]

I say it is a tool and not a component. That's all I've got.

[pbarry]

I say it is a tool and not a component. That's all I've got.

Yes! You nailed it. Leverage from a brake cable/yoke setup would push the arms out, not in. Maybe a jig for brazing or welding u-brake posts?

[Macadamia]

Ask This Old Paceline

I'm going with a fancy Cinelli nutcracker, back on the early bmx circuit riders and fans ate lots of walnuts, and thus this part. This is also the origin of saying something is "nuts"

[bicycletricycle]

Saddle rail adjuster?

[smontanaro]

I'm pretty sure it has something to do with brakes. The eBay seller (in Italy) asked on an Italian mtb forum. She got a rather vague reply (well, at least in Google translation), something about connecting to the cables (canti or center pull straddle cables, I suspect), and that it was missing a spring.

I'd kind of like to see a picture of a complete one of these things. Maybe I could make it whole and place it on a bike in the proper orientation. If nothing else, it might be a conversation topic at a rest stop on a ride.

My guess is that none of us really know what it is because it was so bad at its intended purpose that Cinelli quickly pulled it from the market. [emoji6]

[Hindmost]

I think the business side is the reverse side. Are there more images?

[smontanaro]

My apologies, not that I have yet taken. Here's the eBay auction:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/182572683457

[zmudshark]

The peening on the reverse is totally out of place, whatever it is.:confused:

[Hindmost]

A cantilever brake caliper spreader? The bottom of the mechanism will clamp cables left and right. A coil spring placed across one of the three levels would spread brake calipers when the brakes are released.

[smontanaro]

The peening on the reverse is totally out of place, whatever it is.:confused:
Yeah, the quality doesn't make it look like Cinelli's best work.

[bicycletricycle]

i have another guess.

it is a single pivot brake spring stretcher.