Every Colnago bicycle frame is of course a cut above the ordinary, but this four decade old example represents a significant milestone in the maestro’s continuing development of the state of the art road racing bike. This is an ‘Nuovo-Mexico‘, which for the first time featured the additional ‘crimping’ which would go on to become such an instantly recognizable trademark of later Colnago frames. The top and down tubes have been drawn by Columbus through a special tool which deformed the tube profile, leaving two lateral impressions on either side. In addition to imparting an extra level of visual sophistication, this treatment is thought to increase the resistance of the tube to lateral deformation. Shortly thereafter Ernesto Colnago would introduce the now legendary ‘Master’ frames, whose main tubes featured quadruple crimping.
We have had this delightful frame and matching fork set restored to the fabulous condition you can see in this photo set, including gently media-blasting off the original time-worn surface treatments, re-chroming the rear stays and forks, and exactly recreating the glorious candy apple red paintwork. Our master frame technician is particularly proud of having successfully reproduced the exact hue and deep lustre of this original Colnago paint shade, made famous by the exploits of famous racers such as Giuseppe Saronni and the Del Tongo team. Getting this gorgeous paint just right was no mean feat, and in actual fact it took our man many attempts, over as long as a decade and a half, before the super secret formula was rediscovered and perfected! It is truly an exact match, and is well complimented by the yellow lettered decal set, all protected beneath a final clear top coat.
If you can concentrate your gaze to look deeper than that mesmerising paint, you’ll find delightful details such as the tapering embossed seat stay caps, brand name embossed chain stays, thinned-down and ‘sharpened’ uppermost lug points, to name but a few. We hope the next lucky owner elects to ride and enjoy this frame and fork as it’s famous maker intended, although we can understand that it might well become an ornamental trophy feature in a serious collection.
Brand: Colnago
Material: Steel Columbus SL
Frame Size/Seat tube: 51.5 cm ct. – ct. (53 cm top tube)
Top tube Length: 53 cm
Head tube: 110 mm
Fork: 1″ Threaded
Fork Shaft: 148mm
Wheelbase: 98.5 cm
Rear spacing: 130 mm
Seatpost diameter: 27.2mm
Weight: 2500g