Stevan wrote:
"I never saw any Colnago built ones. The ones that Tony at a Bicycle Odyssey had were Kessels, made in Belgium. Beautiful replica Molteni bikes. The had an oval decal at the top of the seat tube that said "Main d'Or" (hand of gold). Do we know for a fact that Colnago made similar bikes that were imported to the states? Stevan Thomas Alameda, CA I'll take one, 60 to 62 ctc."
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I have a pretty full-color brochure that features the Colnago Super Pantografata, with a one page display ad for the Colnago Merckx road bike on the back. This molteni-orange beauty was *definitely* made by Colnago, and doesn't look like a one-off to me. It has some nice pantographing, unique to this bike, and seems to me to have been a bike made in some quantity and marketed. I know of at least two of them that I've heard of, but I've never seen one in person. The one in the brochure is a truly gorgous beast, and worth beating the bushes for..if one knew which bushes to beat. I have no clue who might have brought them in.
If I remember right, one of the two I know of showed up as a kind-of error. Someone ordered a Super and got one of these instead...I think this was discussed on the list awhile ago, maybe whoever knew the story could recapitulate it for us..and tell us who sold it originally.
I'm sure some came into the country. But not many. Maybe on the order of early 70s De Rosas, which are also awfully hard to find. Although I've seen more of those for sale than this molteni-Merckx by Colnago... which is to say, I've never seen one for sale.
Charles Andrews Beautiful south Orange County California (where I rode 40 miles from my house to San Onofre--of storied surf-safari reputation--and back... one of the nicest solo rides I've had in a long, long time. A perfect, mild, sunny, clear day, not a cloud to be seen, and no smog whatsoever..not that we get smog down here..we don't.. ;> )
"Even in such a time of madness as the late twenties, a great many men in Wall Street remained quite sane. But they also remained very quiet. The sense of responsibility in the financial community for the community as a whole is not small. It is nearly nil."
--John Kenneth Galbraith *The Great
Crash of 1929*