I also collect any images that appear. Greg Softly has probably looked more closely at the variations than most of us, but from my perspective:
- The (very nice) current ebay bike appears to be basically the same as most other supposedly pre-1970ish frames I have seen images of. Check Greg's bikes for example.
- The red one, which was very interesting when it appeared, seems to be
earlier. It has the different seat stay treatment, and is very similar to
blue Molteni decaled bike that also appeared last year, supposedly a 1968.
It also has simpler head tube lugs, which do not have the small point on the
sides that all (?) of the later bikes (including well into the 70s) have.
>From the Mexico Olympics head tube decal on the red bike it seems reasonable
to assume that it is 1968 or later - although the Mexico Olympics were in
October 1968, so maybe they are all 1969... or maybe the decal was used
before the Olympics??
- My one was claimed to be built as a team bike for the 1968 Olympics but this could well be a wishful story that developed in later years based on its orginal head tube decal badge. It appears to be transitional between the red and blue "Molteni" bikes with has the simpler head lugs (but with the precursor to the club cutouts of the slightly later bikes as in the ebay example, not the holes of the Molteni bikes), but the later seatstay treatment.
http://picasaweb.google.com/
My take: it seems reasonable to assume that the red (and blue) supposedly Molteni bikes are 1968, the current ebay one is more likely to be 1969, and mine is somewhere in between... but who knows!
What I really need to do is trace the military service of Jim Brittain who was the original owner of my bike, and apparently, so the story goes, bought it from Ernesto on his way home from a tour of duty in Vietnam. I'd like to find his military records to see when he was there, if anyone knows how?
The trivia that keeps us amused!
Best regards,
Mark Battley Auckland, New Zealand
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Message: 2 Date: Wed, 21 Jul 2010 15:03:55 -0400 From: Angel Garcia <veronaman@gmail.com> Subject: [CR] eBay 1969 Colnago To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org Message-ID: <AANLkTim39d-iMO2ZD0Zd_Wuxlrz14wILT6M6z3PVSq_V@mail.gmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
Because Pre-70 Colnagos are rare I have saved some photos in my blog.
This one is said to be a 19868/69 and it's completely different than the
68/69 in the ebay listing Kevin posted below.
http://italiancyclingjournal.blogspot.com/
Comments?
Angel Garcia
Long Valley NJ