This bike was fairly well known in certain Auckland, NZ bikenerd circles a few years ago. The previous owner was Bruce O'Halloran who hails from Coe ur'd'Alene, Idaho, and who ran a subterrainean bike shop and bike rental bu siness in downtown Auckland. Bruce told me that a friend bought the frame from Ernesto Colnago whilst travelling the world after his tour of duty in Vietnam. Allegedly it was intended for a member of the French Olympic team which would make it early '68, however Bruce's friend negotiated it from t he initially-unwilling Ernie Colnago withe aid of some good red wine. For years this was part of Bruce's rental fleet, though for long peroids it wa s unavailable to the general public due to its popularity among Bruce's sho p grommets.
As Charles has suggested, Colnagos were unusual in New Ze
aland in the 70s. As far as I can recall, the best frames that could be rea
dily acquired were of the order of 531 Raleighs, Carltons & Falcons. A reas
onable number of Kiwi riders travelled overseas though, so some exotica was
availabel to be ogled by the rest of us, such as Kim Sinclair's Bianchi Sp
eciallissima which he bought new in Vicenza in 1975: http://www.flickr.com/
http://re
troride.blogspot.com
S ent: Wednesday, 26 December, 2007 9:11:22 PM Subject: RE: [CR]Help with C olnago age and model ID - thanks
Thanks to everyone (and there have be en very many of you) who have replied. This group continues to be an amaz ing source of information.
I have just spoken to the owner and asked h im to check the underside of the bottom bracket, he is not with the bike at present but hopefully will be able to check tomorrow. I meant to check when I viewed it yesterday but was in a rush and forgot.
The late 6 0 fits with what he was told when he bought it, although it does appear t hat it may have had a few brazeons added later in its life.
Thanks aga in, and I will update you when I know more.
Best regards,
Mark Ba ttley Auckland, NZ.
-----Original Message----- From: Jim Ready [mailto:jimr@rfj.com] Sent: Wednesday, December 26, 2007 2:01 PM To: m ark.battley@xtra.co.nz Subject: Re: [CR]Help with Colnago age and model I D
Mark,
Boy, your post sure genersated a lot of responses. As I m entioned in my response, and as you can see from the timeline, the key to it being from the 60's is the bottom bracket cut out. I have a 1969 Coln ago and the most distinguishing characteristic is the bottom bracket with a circular set of holes, rather than the Colango "club" cut out. I can't wait to see what you have.
Jim Ready Cupertino, CA
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