Cinelli Spinaci Bars

Simon Smythe remembers a popular accessory from a notorious era when pro riders tried anything and everything to go faster

- Simon Smythe

In the mid-1990s average speeds in professional cycling started to rise very rapidly. Now we know that widespread organised use of EPO was mostly responsible but a clever invention by Italian component brand Cinelli had a similar effect until it was banned, ironically a very long time before the most prolific dopers were.

The Spinaci bars – vaguely resembling spinach in their shape and a good excuse for Cinelli’s art team to draw Popeye with a Cinelli winged ‘C’ tattooed on his bulging forearm riding a set – were extensions that bolted to the handlebar, adding just 220g of “full strength vitamin-packed alloy”.