<< Colnago is not a monstrous industrial company. There are not more than 30 people total who work for Colnago, whether in the offices, shipping or production. By my measures that is a small company. If I am not mistaken, even a shop like Dale's has close to that many people working for him each year, when you count the part-timers.>>
You mean cycles de ORO is not considered a "monstrous industrial company"? Rats!!!
Dale Brown cycles de ORO, Inc. 1410 Mill Street Greensboro, North Carolina 27408 USA 336-274-5959 http://www.cyclesdeoro.com http://www.classicrendezvous.com Giant, Specialized, Orbea, Felt, Landshark, Pinarello, Colnago, Townie and other exotica. National Bicycle Dealers Association Board member
-----Original Message----- From: TheMaaslands@comcast.net To: Classicrendezvous@bikelist.org Sent: Mon, 18 Sep 2006 4:33 PM Subject: [CR]Ebay neglects to remove counterfeit Colnago
Monkeyman wrote:
"This bike would date from the late-80s to early-90s. To my eyes the tubing decal looks correct. Also the seatstay caps and rear brake bridge look right too."
I would tend to agree with Brandon on this point. This looked like a legit Colnago bike that was perhaps sold in Belgium by the local distributor there. It is not of the level that were then sold in the US, but looks plausible. It should also be pointed out that the Belgian distributor has an agreement with Colnago to buy frames in unpainted state and paint them in his own paint shop, so paint schemes that are not or no longer available from Colnago in Italy can at times be found through the Belgian sales network.
Brandon then went on to state: "Folks need to remember that Colnago is a BIG company not some small handful of guys making frames. Colnagos are mass produced on a large assembly line by a bunch guys and some robots.
If you don't believe me download the video from Mark Bulgier's site <http://bulgier.net/vids/Bike/>. On a usual work day each of the stations on that frame and fork line would have a person on it."
Here I would like to completely disagree with the Monkeyman. Colnago is not a monstrous industrial company. There are not more than 30 people total who work for Colnago, whether in the offices, shipping or production. By my measures that is a small company. If I am not mistaken, even a shop like Dale's has close to that many people working for him each year, when you count the part-timers. Then when you consider the average employee has worked there for over 15 years, you can see that this is not a standard industrial company. The short video that Brandon alluded to dates from a number of years ago when they were produing almost exclusively steel frame bikes. If I recall correctly, the production line, which is located in the basement of Ernesto's home, has 14 positions, which actually represents 7 actual brazing positions and 7 preheat stations, so at maximum production back in the day, there were only 7 frame brazers plus another 3 fork brazers. Today, virtually, if not actually all, of the steel frames are made by one single retired frame-builder who comes in to earn some pocket money. He generally does not use the production line, because the demand is simply not there. The fellow checking the frame on the table in the video is none other than Vanni Brambilla, Ernesto's son-in-law, and father of Alessandro Colnago the third generation Colnago to join the company (who legally had his family name changed from Brambilla to Colnago!) Vanni has actually been responsible for all new frame designs for close to the last 10 years now.
Steven Maasland Moorestown, NJ USA
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