Lightweight Techno Talk: How to identify a genuine Colnago

Colnago Lovers please be aware - many fakes out there!

While I was searching for a Seventies Colnago Super I came accross many auctions, adverts and posts where people praised their lovely Colnagos with extraordinary and mostly highly ambitious asking prices.

 

Recognizing that many of these offers were dealing with faked Colnagos was a pain.

You can tell a lot about Bianchi (and their prices or their quality) but fakes you won´t come along amongst them.

Let´s clarify what makes a Colnago a genuine Colnago:

Anytime you´re looking at a frame with more than two brazed on cable guides on the top tube it´s not a genuine Colnago.

But please keep in mind that these cable guides on top tube were optional prior to 1977. Thus  braze-ons might be there on earlier frames as well; but always only two of them.

Additionally frames named Colnago Sports were partially produced in Italy for the german cycling dealer Brüggelmann within the eighties and sold as their house brand. Ernesto Colnago  initiated a legal battle regarding the name conflict and won.

Thus please be aware: None of the Colnago Sport bicycles is a genuine Colnago.

Finally I came along the following very helpfull list of frame specifications in order to match your frame to something like the Colnago time line and found these hints very helpfull in order to recognize fakes as well as genuine Colnagos.

Specifications for 1968

• "Super" decal on chain stay

• Fork crown (sand cast) with two holes in the points at each side
• Fork tangs wide, no cutouts
• Club cutouts in all three lugs
• Bottom bracket shell with drilled holes (eight in circle plus one in center)

Specifications for 1970

• Fork crown (investment cast) semi-sloping, flat front and back with two holes in
• the points at each side
• "Playing card" club decal graphics (inspired by 1970 Milano-San Remo victory)

Specifications for 1971

• Fork crown with clubs in top and two holes in each side
• Fork tangs narrow, no cutouts (or rarely no tangs)
• Club cutouts in all three lugs but club in lower head lug is now larger
• Hole in lower point of seat lug (last year)
• Bottom bracket shell with club cutout

Specifications for 1972

• Black Club/COLNAGO decal on head tube/seat tube (two seat tube Worlds bands) and
• COLNAGO on down tube

• Fork tangs with two holes (or very rarely three holes tangs or no tangs)
• Derailleur cable guide braze-ons top of bottom bracket shell
• Water bottle braze-ons on downtube

Specifications for 1973

• Wreath seat tube decal with Worlds band at top and bottom
• Fork crown with clubs on top but no holes in each side
• Fork tangs with club cutouts (or rarely two hole tangs or no tangs)

• Club cutout in lower head lug only

• Introduction of the Super Pantografata

Specifications for 1974

• Shifter braze-ons on down tube (option before this)

Specifications for 1975

• Mexico model introduced
• Diagonal Worlds band added behind black Club/COLNAGO head tube decal

• Diagonal Worlds band with yellow Club/COLNAGO head tube decal used for one year
• Vertical COLNAGO seat tube decal with single diagonal Worlds band at top

Specifications for 1976

• Fork crown with COLNAGO added to clubs on top

• Short Campagnolo or COLNAGO dropouts

Specifications for 1977

• Fork crown with shallow triangles cut into back (no recessed brake bolt)
• Top tube brake cable guide braze-ons (an option before this)

Specifications for 1978

• Fork crown for recessed brake bolt with shallow triangles cut into back

• Brake bridge for recessed brake bolt

Specifications for 1980

• Fluted seat stay caps engraved COLNAGO and straight seat stays (no longer biconical shape)
• Brake bridge with cast square boss for recessed brake bolt

Specifications for 1981

• Chain stay bridge is small spool shape (no longer tube shape)

Specifications for 1982

• Chain stays stamped COLNAGO on sides
• Derailleur cable routing moved to underside of bottom bracket

Specifications for 1983

• Aerodynamic fork crown

Following these specification guidelines

 the shown Colnago Super is identified to be a genuine Colnago Super dating from 1978.

1971 - Crescent Mark XX

Western Wheel Works in Chicago founded by the german Adolph Schoeninger started to produce Crescent bicycles in 1894 and to make them affordable for working people and widening the market with massive exports. In order to lower prices and to widening the market for massive exports they used production methods in order to lower costs dramatically and were preceding Herny Fords concept of mass production.

 
Export from the United States to Europe generally lowered prices and the so called first bicycle boom was a fact. Especially in Sweden demand and interest in new transportation methods was high and were asking Eli Pettersson and August Lindblad to found Aktiebolaget Amerikansk Cycle Import company in 1896.They started to import those Crescent bicycles from Western Wheel Works and bicycle parts and accessories from other companies and brands.

At some time in between 1907 and 1908 AB Amerikansk Cycleimport started to produce bicycles with the name Crescent at their own.  I do not know how they managed to re-use the well known american brand name, but they did.

In 1910 the company moved to Tunnelgatan 10 and the changed name to Velocipedaktiebolaget Lindblad with Eli Pettersson and August Lindblad going separate ways and Pettersson selling motorcycles from now on.

In 1912 Olympics in Stockholm Henrik Morén and the swedish team won gold with Morén riding a Crescent.

Danish racer Henry Hansen rode to Olympic gold in Amsterdam in 1928 on a Crescent lightweight and became world champion in Copenhagen 1931.

In same year cooperation between Lindblads in Stockholm and Nymans in Uppsala started with mowing production of Crescent and Drott to Nymans Verkstäder in Uppsala. In 1960 Crescent was sold together with Nymans to Monark.

Besides the fact that most of the Crescent lightweights were sold with a model name that consists of numbers they got additional namings. Racer, Helracer, Banracer, VM Racer, Specialracer and Pepita are names that are well known and stand for high perfromance and reliable frames and lightweights.

In addition they are known for their nice adverts of the seventies as shown above.

At the start of the seventies within the third bicycle boom swedish Crescent decided to grow on the US market and produced some very special models especially for the american market.

Unless I was and be searching for a early Pepita, Specialracer or VM Racer I found this lovely 1971 Mark XX frame in eBay

1981 - Jan de Reus

Jan de Reus of Halfweg, Netherlands became champion of the Netherlands amateurs in 1931. In 1933 he switched to a pro career but wasn´t that successful. Thus he ended the pro era and became a frame builder in 1937.

Building frames for Theo Smit made him imperceptibly well known in the Netherlands.. Have been most successful clients is undoubtedly Theo Smit, who always was riding with frames of Jan de Reus, who passed away in 1987. Further on his son Jan de Reus junior took over the manufacture and gained again respect of the cyclist in building very reliable and high performance frames. Unfortunately he became only 55 years old and passed away in 2001 too early.

Actually there is a bicycles shop in Zwanenburg just a stone away from Halfweg where all began. But this shop is owned by former pro cyclist Ron Snijders.

I´ve found this frame supposed to be of 1981 on eBay:

1956 - SUN Soleil d´ Or

I knew nothing about SUN Cycles of Birmingham and so set about searching the internet to find out.

Basically SUN Cycles was part of F. C. Parkes  Cycles in Birmingham and made some classy lightweights from 1930s to late 1950s before they were eventually taken over by Raleigh.

Famous models build by SUN are the Manxman, the Wasp. Some of their better bikes were also sold under the F C Parkes name. Thus the SUN Soleil d´ Or has been sold with very similar components as a F.C. Parkes Cote d´ Or as well. Following an excerpt of the F.C. Parkes catalog of round about 1955.

SUN Cycles addressed more the real racers and sponsored and led definitely a successful racing team around 1953. The catalog of this year reported about it proudly

Reason for starting a search about SUN Cycles was this lovely 1956 Soleil d´ Or I´ve had seen on eBay UK:

1974 - Ko Zielemann Type Special

Besides Gazelle, Joco, Union and Presto one can find really pretty and good lightweights in the Netherlands. One manufacturer of interest is Ko Zielemann, who learned the business from his father, who did his apprentinceship in 1923. Ko started a reasonable career as an amateur rider first and took over the shop of his father later.

With brand name spirit they produced transportation bicycles, but their family name got only the good stuff, that was build for special order only.Thus with Ko Zielemann you will get old craftmanship and high performance. Old riders told me that they called Zielemann the dutch Masi also.

Ko Zielemann ended his career as a framebuilder with very limited words and made an advert in the Bikers Revue: “ Ko stops, tools and bikes on sale”

Some times ago I´ve sourced this lovely frame

1938 - Gloria Garibaldina Extra Corsa

Gloria was founded in 1922 by Alfredo Focesi in Milan and very early introduced those prominent and brand-typical lily lug adornments. 

In 1923 Liberio Ferrario became the very first Italian amateur road world champion riding a Gloria. Today Gloria is known for beeing the first apprenticeship of Ernesto Colnago and for their famous Garibaldina. This excerpt of 1939 catalog shows Garibaldina Extra and Normale

 

Of course I came along a Gloria Garibaldina Extra Corsa.

 Hopefully mine will be looking as beautiful as this one - stay tuned

PS.:


If somebody want to part with Gloria brake levers or does have a spare San Giorgio brake lever he wants to sell I would be very grateful to get dropped a line. Same with appropriate Ambrosio stem with 90 up to 100 mm length. Many thanks in advance. Best regards.