Re: [CR]Colnago quiz

(Example: Events:Cirque du Cyclisme)

From: "C. Andrews" <chasds@mindspring.com>
To: "DB" <db@home-work.com>
References: <Springmail.0994.1042161507.0.83078000@webmail.atl.earthlink.net> <a05100334ba43e69bbef4@[192.168.1.100]>
Subject: Re: [CR]Colnago quiz
Date: Fri, 10 Jan 2003 08:07:31 -0800
cc: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org

Dan Borden is the winner.

I was interested in how the details of the bike suggested more general conclusions...the thing about the bike that interested me most, is that I'm almost certain it's a repaint, as Dan points out below. The details he cites, coupled with the lack of paint-fill in the lug cutout, suggest pretty strongly that this was an earlier frame, repainted and re-decorated to look like a later frame...How much earlier? I dunno?

Johan Ericson's observations are right on target also. Who knows what happened? Maybe the frame sat around for a few years, then finally got painted, decaled, and sold. Maybe it was some weird special-order.

The parts may be correct for the period of the frame as it appears, although that chainring seems like something that would have gone on a bike made earlier than the decals of this bike would indicate.

After looking very carefully at the lugs, and comparing them to a completely legit Saronni-era Colnago I have here, I think the lugs are the correct medium-points for the period of the graphics; but I had to look carefully, and I'm still mildly dubious about them.

It was just a little brain-teaser...but with a slightly more serious intent. I wish someone had told me about the nuances of these bikes 5 or 6 years ago (especially nuances in Masis); I would have saved myself money and frustration.

Dan, send me your address, and I'll send you your prize..

Best,

Charles "I'm outta here to train for the Mt. Baldy Brevet--I must be insane" Andrews Los Angeles


----- Original Message -----
From: DB
To: chasds@mindspring.com


<classicrendezvous@bikelist.org> Sent: Thursday, January 09, 2003 7:06 PM Subject: Re: [CR]Colnago quiz


> At 8:18 PM -0500 1/9/03, <chasds@mindspring.com> wrote:
> >for those with some time on their hands...
>
> OK. So far my observations are that the scooped, non panographed
> seatstay caps and the long, pointed and thinned headlugs make the
> frame appear to be of 1970's vintage.
>
> Therefore, I deduce that some braze-ons may have been added, and the
> bike repainted and redecaled. It looks to me like the dt shifter
> braze-ons are placed too close to the headtube lug to be factory
> work, but I'm not sure.
>
> Also, the decals make the bike not appear to be from the early 80's,
> as the seller states, but from the middle 80's. Early 80's decals
> didn't have the two large white panels.
>
> Those are my observations.
>
> -Dan Borden, with too much time on my hands but with an interest in
> Colnagos, in Brookline, MA
> --