Another reader had previously written in with, "A guy who worked at a Centurion dealer in California in the 80's said that these prototypes were brought to dealers to try to drum up orders for the coming Equipe."
Eric included this information: "I'm the friend of an owner of # 62, as stamped on the BB shell. In 1984 Bill had broken his Centurion Frame while touring (not sure which model) and took it back to Santa Rosa Cyclery in Santa Rosa California, the shop that he frequented. Since his broken model was the top of the line Centurion from a previous year, the warranty department at Western States Imports offered him what was going to be their top of the line bike for the upcoming year. The blue Centurion - Cinelli Project bike is what arrived at the bike shop in the coming weeks. Since the bike was built in Italy he decided to stay with the theme and built it up with Campagnolo components, save a few things that he was comfortable with and had found to be outstanding parts, like MA-40 rims and a SunTour freewheel."
Are you sure the 62 on your bottom bracket isn't the size? My Cinelli Project Centurion has 58 on its bottom bracket and it is a 58cm. Your frame looks like about 62cm. It would be a heck of a coincidence if my 58cm frame was #58 and your 62cm frame was #62. When I registered my bike with campus police I put 58 down as the serial number even though I was pretty sure it was the size. If your bike lacks a serial number they pull out the number punches to mark it for you and nobody was going to do that to my bike!
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