Last time we covered Cinelli, it was for a special edition of this bike painted by artist Alessandro Mendini. Other than the paint, the Nemo Tig Gravel bike carries over unchanged other than spec updates and a massive selection of paint colors…but Cinelli itself has seen a lot of changes.
They’ve had a new owner for about a year, and they’ve set up a US warehouse in Asheville and headquarters in Austin. All of the bikes, however, are still made in the same Italian factory that they’ve always been, and the Nemo Tig is still made from custom oversized Columbus Spirit HSS steel tubes.
Clean, tiny welds connect the head tube, with internal brake hose routing constrasting the classic external shift cable routing.
It keeps the seat binder lug…
…and winged dropout for a classic look. The carbon fork has integrated fender mounts, and the bike is rated for bikepacking, albiet with strap-on frame bags since there aren’t many extra mounts beyond the top tube bag bolts. Tire clearance is 700×40 with an all-road geometry.
Available in 37 different colors, with your choice of white or black decals. Some colors (Green Special, Pearl White, and Champagne) are stocked and ready to ship from Asheville, but all frames in Italy are prepped for paint and waiting for the customer’s selection, so there’s no charge to select any of the colors if you don’t mind waiting about six weeks to get your bike.
The Cinelli Zydeco Lala is their base build of their original gravel bike (and also a cyclocross model for them, but with 40mm tire clearance). Built with more mounting points for a rear rack, top tube back, and partial internal shifter routing, it’s triple-butted Columbus Zona Aluminum tubing is ready for just about any adventure, even if it’s only in the urban jungle.
