Hello List members<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
I might be out on thin ice here and I hope that my english is good enough to get you all to understand my point.
Being a fan of 70: ies and early 80:ies Colnagos I read all texts and look at all pics I find on these.
Some thoughts arise whilst doing this.
A lot of time is spent in different forums on discussing what year a certain bike is from. Some people have strong opinions and some are more "easy going". I see two focuses - telling 1971, -72 and maybe -73 apart and 1979 to -83 apart.
I have always wondered a little about how/why people can argue about what exact year a certain bike is from with such stubborness/ease. Bikes are not calender exact. A frame built 1979 could have been built up 1981 with components made in 1978 and then sold in 1982. What year is it from?
What does a frame builder do when he run out of a certain piece and the orders are stacked high? Does he sit and wait until the part/decal arrive or does he take what he have/can get fast/or/?
My own Colnagos, of wich some falls into the 71-71 and 79-83 categories, show all kinds of strange variations and "year crossing". Due to the extreme difficulties in finding these old nagos in Sweden I am fortunate to have found them. The nice part about their "rareness" here is that the original owners are easy to track down and interview. In two cases they have been special orders by professional racers. When interviewing them the answers show how the ordering was done at the factory (yes both were at The Place and had them made while on winter training camp - one in -72 and one in -81).
The Colnago folks sat down with them and discussed tubes, lugs, braze ons, seat stay caps, paint, chrome and decals. They showed a lot of different parts that they could choose from. The guy who was there in 1981 could choose from the following seat stay caps - plain fluted, fluted with panta and non fluted with panta. He ordered non fluted with panta (for wich I am sorry - I like the plain fluted more), two sets of waterbottle braze ons (the upper hole on the seat tube is exactly fitted into the last "O" in Colnago) and THREE white panel decals (the horisontal tube got a down tube decal). He could also choose between the semi slooping and the fully/more slooping fork crown - he went for the semi. AND of course round or profiled tubes - he took the round ones. Components - C SR -80.
Talking to the "-72" guy about decals - "You could choose from a variety of decals and placements, clubs on DT and HT or the leaves decal on the DT, small or bigger Colnago text, panels etc"
Someone can argue that these were special orders and of course they could pick what they wanted. My theory, though, is that the "mix" applies to production frames too. What the frames looked like in the end all depended on a lot of things. Supply, if the sun shone, if the wife was in a good mood, etc, etc.
Regards Johan Ericson Stockholm, Sweden PS. This is not in any way written to debate the ongoing thread "Colnago Quiz" (I enjoy it) but something that has "grown on me" for a while.