All this is pure speculation. The "not especially anomalous" fork crown could have been made by anyone-the fork crown is either an anomaly or not. The burden is on the* seller* to prove the authenticity of the bike* -not potential buyers*. The seller claims to me that he has shown the bike to Paolo Colnago. I have asked the seller to post a Certification of Authenticity from Colnago for this bike with serial numbers (if present) and photos at the very least.
On Thu, Jan 20, 2011 at 2:26 PM, Charles Andrews <chasds@mindspring.com>wrote:
> Edward Albert wrote:
>
> I would have to agree with Matthew on this. I have never seen a Colnago
> super fork crown with both the C around the club and the dots on the side.
> Did someone, in the refinishing, fill in the dots?
> Edward Albert
>
> ******************
>
> Very cool crown on that bike, but probably not especially anomalous.
> Colnagos confined to Europe often looked different in certain details from
> those that were imported to America. I recall a post from one of our Dutch
> members some years ago, in which he said that in the 1970s and beyond,
> Colnago would make a bike just about any way you wanted it, if you worked
> with a dealer who had that kind of relationship with Colnago, or if you were
> lucky enough to work directly with a factory rep, or Colnago himself. I
> have an early 70s colnago, for instance, that was originally sold in Europe
> that has a number of cosmetic features not usually seen on Colnagos of that
> vintage that came to America.
>
> I had a colnago track bike from the very early 70s that had a crown just
> like the one on the ebay bike, except, of course, it was a track crown for
> round blades. But the flower/club inside the C was used at that time on the
> top of crowns...it would not have been a big deal to make a mold for the
> road crown that included that feature.
>
> One thing I noticed about the ebay bike: the lugs are faired/smoothed into
> the tubes in a way usually seen on slightly later colnagos. For some years
> I owned a colnago from that time that had quite distinct lug-edges, with
> very little filing, far as I could tell, and very thin original paint. It
> may be the paint-job has slightly blurred the edges of the lugs on the ebay
> bike, too.
>
> The ebay bike is very neat..but I sure would have preferred original paint.
>
> Charles Andrews
> Los Angeles
>
>
> "No man is an island, entire of itself; every
> man is a piece of the continent, a part of the
> main. If a clod be washed away by the sea,
> Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory
> were, as well as if a manor of thy friend's or
> of thine own were: any man's death diminishes
> me, because I am involved in mankind, and
> therefore never send to know for whom the bells
> tolls; it tolls for thee."
>
>
> John Donne
> Meditation 1624
> _______________________________________________
>
-- George
George Hollenberg MD
CT, USA