Garth,
I have long been a fan of Colnago bicycles. My second "good" bike was a Colnago Super I bought in 1972, not long after buying a Peugeot PX-10 fo r my first bike. By the time I began racing in 1973 the Peugeot had gone by the wayside in favor of the Colnago. I also had a 1972 Masi GC and a n Eisentraut "A" bike. The Eisentraut was a great bike, but a little les s racing oriented than the Colnago. For me, the Colnago had the correct geometry and that classy European look.
Only about 3 weeks ago we here in San Diego were treated to a special ev ent; the first annual San Diego Gran Fondo fun ride, sponsored by Colnag o. Ernesto himself was here! He had been in the area for a few days and had been making the rounds of area Colnago dealers and signing all kinds of stuff. Rob O got some great photos with him and some great souvenirs from one of the bike shop visits. The ride was on Sunday; but those of us who were exhibitors got to attend the VIP dinner the night before at Po Pozzo restaurant in Little Italy, which was where the ride started an d ended. It was Ernesto's 77th Birthday that day, Feb.28. He is in good shape for his age. He is know as a man with unlimited energy. Each of us was presented with a book about Colnago and his bicycles, the whole sto ry! He then autographed each one for us personally. Matt Gorski and myse lf each have one. Matty took some photos of us at the dinner also.
Matt Gorski and Charles Andrews assembled an AMAZING display of their vi ntage Colnago collection for the Expo on Sunday. Ernesto spent the entir e day there and when Ernesto came by to look at the stuff, I could tell it really warmed his heart. The respect we have for the bikes was very c lear and Colnago responded. He was signing his autograph on the top tube s of many Colnagos all day long. We (David Ybarrola and myself) had our booth next to Matt and Charles to represent the San Diego Custom Bicycle Show. We had our own bikes but I also brought my 1970 Colnago (restored by me) and my Colnago replica track bike. I was a little concerned abou t what sort of reaction I would get from Ernesto for the replica, consid ering an incident I had with Ernesto at the New York Bike Show back in a bout 1983. (He was upset when he saw I frame I had on display which had a club cut in the bottom head lug, along with the heart, spade, and diam ond in the other lugs. Obviously he was mistaken about who has the right to use symbols that are public domain, but his lawyers straightened him out. I really got a good laugh, when he threatened to sue me.) That was then. With Ernesto was his grandson Alessandro who spoke some English a nd was taking photos of everything. Alessandro is the heir to the Colnag o company as I understand. Anyway, they looked over my replica of a 1971 Colnago track bike, there was a little discussion as they pointed out s ome of the details of the frame (including my embossed knife makers mark on the top of the chromed fork crown) and then he proceeded to autograp h the top tube! I was really surprised. I don't know if he thought it wa s a genuine Colnago or if he approved of it somehow. I didn't want to as k. But that was a great moment. I then asked him what year my 1970 (as f ar as we know) road bike was. I pointed out some of the details like the pattern of drilled holes in the BB as opposed to the club cutout and th e smaller sized club in the bottom head lug. He said the bike was from a bout 1965! I suspect that may not be correct, knowing the bike was sold in Peter Rich's shop Velo Sport no earlier than 1969 and most likely 197 0. He signed the top tube of that one also and he seemed to like the res toration.
Then he examined some of my bikes and took a lot of photos. I told him I make a few frames per year completely by hand and he seemed to apprecia te that. I handed him this track frame I just completed and he looked it over closely, checking inside the BB shell and stuff like that. Once he was finished, he did something rather unusual for an Italian framebuild er; he shook my hand and said "congratulations", which is Italian for "n ice job". That's exactly the word and gesture that Christiano DeRosa sai d to me at Interbike when we met there last year and he looked over the frame that now belongs to Charles Andrews. That really made my day! At t he end of the day when we were all packing up and getting ready to leave the Expo, Ernesto passed by one more time and made eye contact and gave me one more gesture, using only one digit on his hand. No, it wasn't th e extended middle finger; it was a big thumbs up and a wink with a smile ! That day was one of the most rewarding days I've ever had. I know that Matt and Charles also felt the special glow of having one of our heroes enjoy our efforts and the respect we have for the bikes.
Colnago signed on for 5 more years of sponsorship of the San Diego Gran Fondo. He was that impressed. We are now one of only 4 Gran Fondo locati ons worldwide. One is in Italy, one in France, one is held in South Afri ca, and now San Diego is included!
What a great experience! I have to admit, Colnago is still one of my fav orites, even though I had my training in the other camp at Masi.
Brian Baylis
La Mesa, CA
USA
It's nice that at least one bicycle manufacturer has made enough money
and has the foresight to have constructed a museum. I had not heard of
it before. Beautiful bikes , modern and on topic! It's good to see that
Ernesto has kept himself in such good shape all these years. This is a
must see movie.
Garth Libre in Miami Fl. USA