Cinelli x Oakley: about cycling with Taylor Phinney
Dive into the concept behind our otherworldly collaboration with Oakley and explore the thought behind Cinelli's vision of protopia.
A collaboration that shares our optimistic vision of cycling—one that values creativity and joy over competition. A natural meeting of minds, built on mutual understanding, a space where ideas and inspiration flowed.
The idea was brought to life by Taylor Phinney—former pro cyclist with an open, creative, and curious mind.
Read more from Taylor below.
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"The bicycle, like music, takes many forms and can be categorised into many genres. The bicycles and music that interest me most however, are those that cross pollinate from various sources, those that defy genre.
What is exciting to me about riding these days is how a different tyre or handlebar will feel on a bike that wasn’t specifically designed with it in mind. I love playing with different wheel sizes, and different measurements to find various pockets of feeling. The constant tweaking and refining keeps me exploring my own expression while riding the bike."
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"In my own experience as a professional, the bicycle has been a means of exploring physical and mental limits and a vehicle for success, however, now that my ego has been checked and I ride purely for pleasure, I find that my bikes have become more like tools for different kinds of dances.
Not only do we dance on the pedals down roads, tracks and trails, but when we ride we dance with the geography of the place, with the weather and with the history of those who have passed before us. Ultimately, to ride a bicycle is to dance with time itself, and that dance can take infinite forms."
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"The performance bike combined with a performance mindset results in a closed tunnel towards more power and perhaps more external success, but for the rest of us outside the tunnel who use performance gear for exploration and expression, performance products open our minds and bodies to new heights, new feelings and broader horizons."
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"We let go of the rush we’ve been in for far too long, and we stop using map apps to compete with each other, instead we use that technology as a tool to find deeper ways to interact with our natural environment.
The trails we burn into the earth, the ones we go back to trim in spring and shape when it rains start to hold dear places within us, like living breathing land sculptures. When we begin to make new connections between places it feels as if we’re making new connections between neurons in our own brains."
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"Luckily for us, the more we ride, the more comfortable we become in our pursuit of flow. Gone are the days of bowing to the wind in hopes of improving aerodynamics, we’re no longer cutting weight and chasing power numbers, instead we’ve become obsessed with a sense of oneness with our instrument, with crafting a ride that elevates our fatigue to an art form. Each day and each year we notice that we can feel ourselves deeper through this machine, and that is our progress, our protopia."
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