Cinelli Just Dropped 2 New Bikes That Couldn't Be More Different — And We Love Them Both

Hello people, I've got a treat for you today. Not one bike, but two bikes to review from the same company. But two bikes that not do different things, but aim to do something different or aim to offer you something a little bit different. We have got a Cinelli road bike that's aimed to go fast, the new Aero Scoop, and we've got one that's for, do I dare say, the connoisseurs or those that like a little bit of a steel feel, a forever bike. The new Speciale Corsa XCR, a bike that's definitely taken my fancy. Shall we delve into it, see what the fine folks here at Cinelli are offering up for 2026? Let's get into it. You've never had a tech rundown of the bikes like this before from the inside of a camper. We're Fabrizio, you're one of the main men behind the bikes, aren't you? And people might be going, why are you doing it from inside the camper? You know what bakes in good hands when a man comes to work? in his camper van ready to go away to do what 360 kilometer gravel ride this weekend in one go on the gravel speciale i'm guessing you're going to be doing it yeah of course right so first up let's tell us about yeah the speciale road version the xcr well the xcr is our updated model yeah with the best tubing set produced by columbus the xcr which is a biphasic stainless steel that can give A thickness of the tube of 0.38 millimeter in the middle. Right, give people the idea, is that a Coke can? Yes, a little bit more than a similar, very close to a... Instead of a Coke can in the middle, but this material is incredible. Comes from a French steel maker. Originally this material was designed... for uh military boats because yeah when in the in the 90s the cadmium plating was forbidden for environmental issues and then they asked this company to design to to think about a material which should have been weldable very strong and and corrosion resistant because should have been ...use on military boats or the... the ocean is a very aggressive environment and they came out with this special steel Still. apx4 which was thought to be producing plates but for us they produced billet and so we start from a solid cylinder from a solid building like a big chunk drilled and drawn and drawn and drawn and heat treated many times so it's not flat and no no no it doesn't come doesn't come from a seam in technology. But it's from a real solid cylinder. Holy moly. Right, what's the aim of the bike? What was your... Yeah, the aim of this bike when you were designing it, what was it? The idea was to have a light frame because of course now we are so used to carbon fiber frames where the weights are so low. We know that steel has some very good characteristics and a little bit the problem with steel is to reach some weight limit. But with this material considering that That also you can be Corrosion resistant, you can save like 150-200 grams if you don't paint the frame. You use a little bit of just color without too many layers or protection. So you can save weight from the painting but in the end we have Most of the advantages of steel and specifically for this new Specialix CR, the idea was to have the total internal cable routing, so to make this frame more and more similar to the aspect or the looking and design of the modern road frames. It's the first one with 3D printed looks, steel printed looks. To make this working we design uh some 3d lugs for the in the top part of the head tube and the seat tube area right it's an incredible material and then we've got the aero scoop which is your well your aero bike in it well Well, no. We'll just food that. now we move to the to the other side of uh of uh our range we're still talking about road of course iro scoop is our uh last baby the pinnacle the fastest bike Ever made by Cinelli. We had very good results in the wind tunnel test recently. Top 10 with TOW magazine. Absolutely. They standardize everything. We didn't expect such good results. We wanted for sure because we worked a lot. Because you're a small team as well aren't you? Yeah we are. We are three people in the DR&D office. We also use the help of some outside. That's impressive when you go up against Many brands who will have. A lot more than that shall we say. That's true, we have a lot of experience let me say. Yeah yeah yeah. So tell us about that rear end because that's a standout feature on this bike I would say isn't it? What's that cutout doing? Well we wanted to work as I said on the aerodynamics starting from the pressure too so we didn't start... That's your previous race bike isn't it? Yeah, from a white paper we had already since 2020 2021 experience with the pressure one pressure two and a lot helped you said we are a small team true but we have for example good feedback from our riders that can give us Thank you. the ideas or the targets that we should reach where we have to work on the frame in order to change for example the stiffness or the geometry of course for the aero most of the job was done with the cfd and different iteration and intuitions because there are some like the double rear stay solution yeah quite nice i think and anything in the end helped uh this solution uh study the correct integration between frame and parts because also these can give a big advantage in in terms of reducing the drags yeah Yeah. like handlebar and the frame fork and frame and we'll work a lot on the shape of the the airfoil shapes of the frame in different areas so the final results in the German Wind Tunnel, the GST, where Tur does the test, we wanted to use that standard because that kind of way of measuring the drag has become a sort of standard, gave us data, numbers. to be used for the next development. So you're already thinking ahead as well? Of course, nobody can stop. Right, there. You know the tech specs, you know what the bikes are all about, but what do they ride like? Let's get to the review. So it's Velo number one to test, the new Aero Scoop. Will it be a scooper? Italian passion in there, a scooper. Aerodynamics in there. Thing is, they've not got the strongest guy to test it. Me. All right, don't expect much from that road ride footage. It was very Italian, lots of Fiat 500s chopping you up. To get away from the traffic, we have come to Victoria Park to give the bikes a bit of a run through, where they test a lot of their tyres and where, well, the cool kids come to jump on the pump track. He's just looked at me and gone, nerd, hasn't he? Keep traffic, you for today, enjoy that. Day two, bike number two, and well, the weather's a little bit different today, but it is a bike. That, well, I would say is a forever bike. So it's a bike that you aren't going to have to go out in the rain on no matter what. It is the Speciale Corsa XLR XCR. What is it? Is it the Speciale? Tom Swift. Two rides done, two days, which are very different, shall we say, on two very different bikes. So let's delve into that aero scoop first. Now, I'm going to be the first to admit that. I wasn't going to expect much from a Cinelli aero bike. They're not renowned or not in today's day and age renowned for being at the bleeding edge of aero games, are they? Years ago, yes. But today, no. All I'm going to say, well, not all I'm going to say is, but very, very surprised at the performance. It was a bike that not just put a smile on my face riding, but also made me feel pretty damn rapid. And that rear end, there's something going on there. You can definitely feel a slight sensation coming from that back wheel. It's difficult to describe until you throw a leg over it. The way I would say this bike rides is it is an aero bike with Italian flourish, not an Italian bike with aero flourishes. So what I mean there is this bike is 100% aero, it is 100% performance and their wind tunnel data tests show all that. They're not screaming that it's the best of the best out there but it's up there with the really really outstanding stuff on the market already. So it's got the aero bit ticked off. What I mean by it's got the Italian flourishes is that it definitely feels, and I'm reviewing this before I even look at the geometry chart, it feels a little bit longer on the top tube. Very much like a traditional Italian bike. It's also not an aero bike that feels like it needs to get up to 37 45 kilometers an hour to start performing this thing you're trundling along at 30k an hour feels like it's already giving you those aero advantages that it's been designed for also the front end where some aero bikes that i've rode recently feel a little bit sluggish when you're going slower doesn't feel sluggish I found that out very quickly when we went to that Victoria Centre. You needed the nippiness to get round the corners, and yes, it has that, but it doesn't have the handling of, let's say, sort of a crit bike or something like that. It's well-planted, it sits nicely on the road, it goes where you want it to, and it doesn't scream at you to get it up to, yeah, stupid speeds for it to get going. Right, there's the good things. What don't I like about it? Oh, man, it's a difficult one, because price point. When you put it up against pretty much everybody else, it's sitting in the same category, isn't it? Especially the top-end one. But there's a few niggles, like, let's have the quality tyres on there. The Urubinos are a nice tyre, I will say that. But when you're spending £10,000, you want Vittoria courses on there. Same with the saddle. Though, arguably, that's something that a lot of people change straight away anyway. But, yeah, you're buying the package, you want the premium stuff on there straight away. So, yeah. Get that sorted. Honestly though, with only one ride on it, it is difficult to really pick apart the bits that I don't like about it. It's a bike that I might have to throw a leg over at a later date and get a longer term test on it. So yes, please keep in mind, as always, this is a first ride review. Right, now we've had that one, let's get on to the one that I was very excited about riding when I came here. That's Speciale Corsa XCR. I'm a steel nut. The bikes I've got at home are all metal and there's something about steel that just excites me. And that new bike definitely doesn't disappoint. The thing that did disappoint, though, was my legs going uphill, but that's another story. Yes, we had it on a wet day, so it was a good test for seeing how confident it was. And it is firm-footed. It goes round corners absolutely gorgeous. It goes where you want it to. It's just got a lovely balance up the front end, comfort-wise. I'm not going to say plush because it's not plush. It's just luxurious is the word. It's got a nice floaty feel about it, but it doesn't just numb everything. You feel the road surface. You know what you're riding on, but you're not getting beat up. It is a really nice balance. Climbing, as I say, legs weren't working that day. Lungs weren't working that day. But you can definitely feel that it wants to go uphill. It's not going to hold you back. Yes, it's not as light. Pure climbing bikes made out of carbon out there but it's a bike you could definitely go out and well ride day after day for long distances and not feel like you're being held back. Just like the AeroScoop though looking for negatives on this bike is difficult when you've only had a short ride on it. Again the tyre and the saddle spec needs to be updated for a bike at this sort of money. Quality on the welding, quality on the finishing cannot be Picked apart at all on both bikes. Luxuriously silky smooth. There's just an attention to detail here that you don't seem to get. With quite a few brands out there today. Who are the two bikes for then? Well, yeah, you've got your racey bike for your aero scoop riders. It goes up against stuff that I've rode recently, like the Argon 18, Nitrogen, your Van Rysel RCRF, stuff like that. Without worry, it's that sort of rider. The XCR on the other hand, what does that go up against? And quite simply... It's got to be custom-built frames, I would say, because it's at that sort of price point, that sort of, I'm buying this not just for this season, not for next season, but for a lifetime of riding. And I'm putting down that sort of cash that there's not many big brand manufacturers doing anymore. This is a bike for a person who wants a bike for life. Right, I think I've rambled enough, haven't I? Let me know what one you would choose, people. I know what one I would choose. So yeah, join the conversation below. I hope you've enjoyed this video. Thank you for watching and as always, enjoy your riding.