THE END OF THE ROAD?

Reports are coming in from a few directions that Chris King Precision Components has terminated Cielo bicycles.  I'm sad to see them go having owned a number of their bikes, but to celebrate them, lets think about what the rebirth of Cielo brought us.

As a previous owner of multiple road, CX, and even mountain Cielo frames, I have to say that the thought of them going away has me pretty bummed.  Were they the best bikes I had ever owned?  No.  But they were nice, with great materials, nice touches, with a fun ride.

My first Cielo was an SE model, stainless steel, which wasn't in production for long.  One of the earliest road bikes from Cielo with vertical dropouts rather than the semi-horizontal they were using on the Road models at the time.

That stainless Cielo took me a lot of miles before a friend talked me into selling it.  Steel fork, handbuilt wheels, it rode amazingly well and went on a number of vacations riding in the Rocky Mountains, the SF Bay, and all over the Midwest.

After that I did ride a Cross Racer for a while.  That bike rode great and offered a good value as well.  Unfortunately with exceptionally short head tubes it led to a big stack of spacers.  The paint proved to be durable and looked great, the tubeset was nice.  All in, a great ride from a MUSA bike available quickly.

Cielo pushed the stock-sized, semi-custom idea that a number of brands have adopted since.  Of course, Cielo took it to a new level offering up to something like 13 sizes in some models.

Cielo is leaving the playing field, they'll be missed and we wish them all the best of luck.  On the up side, we still get all of those bearing bits coming out of CKPC to enjoy which will live on for a long time.