Classic & Vintage - colnage super... no sn?

hey everyone...


i've got a 58cm colnage super that i bought 7 years ago. i need help getting any info i can on the frameset. it's got the '72 hour record badge. fork and chainstays are painted, not chromed. the only numbers on the frame are on the right dropout. "L14". that's it.

i know it's no older than '72, and i think i read that they started chroming the fork and chainstays in '75. is this true?

i rally don't know why this matters, but i'd really appreciate any info... thanks.

Perhaps a typo Colnago? details are what helps date these frames. some images of the headlugs, forkcrown, inside & outside, chainstays and dropouts, bb showing cable routing, decals reat brake bridge, top tube, stay caps. All of those features help date them.

I have a small collection of Super serial numbers, trying to puzzle out a code (which I haven't, btw). I have run across a couple of others with no serial number, but impeccable pedigrees. So no serial number is easily within the universe of Colnago - however, your coded dropout is the serial number. Most are coded with a letter and then (I think sequentially) a number. Mine is C250, and I was told that it was an '80. I thought that the letter might have been a year designator ('78 was the first year of the style of super that I have)...but I've seen some pretty high letters - yours would be an '89 by that scheme. Not impossible, but probably unlikely.

Number6 has described it perfectly. Need those pictures to get it into the correct time frame. I'll be watching with great interest!

i'll post pics. thanks so far.

There may not be much use in devining a code, by the mid 70's there were a significant number of "contract" Colnagos being imported, chances of an overriding serial number system being used are not that great. As an example, in Bikecology's 1975 mailorder catalog and adverts they were claiming that there were 500 Colnagos promised them that year alone. This was the beginning of the darker period for Colnago at least in this country, which finally rebounded by appearance after the Saronni World Championship win, post '83. At the time we thought 500 to just one dealer... how many world wide? The "cottage industry" rommance kind of fell flat by sheer numbers alone.

yeah, that's pretty much what I'm concluding. Could be that the letter indicates a provider, I dunno. In fact, though, the bikes themselves are still pretty nice, the ones that I've had experience with. I don't think that the practice of farming out work was unique to Colnago. Eisentraut built some of the early Cali Masi's, and Trek farmed out a bunch of early frame work, mostly 300's and 400's but some of the high end ones as well when they got behind. Continuing on, of course there's Waterford, Serotta, and Match making Paramounts at various times. And was it Mondocino that made the later steel Masi's?

Supply and demand. And...if you can keep the quality lid on, I'm guessing that the ride would not be distinguishable between a factory Colnago and a farmed Colnago. I'd sure like to have an Eisentraut Masi...

If you want an Eisentraut Masi look for a later one, around 0400 (1400 + 25, so About the 1425th frame made) Though not all near that number will be his. He came into picture at the end of the Carlsbad period.

Farming out frames is not new at all, just the rate of which Colnago was doing it was pushing the envelope. The quality of those middle later 70's frames was unfortunate. To his credit Colnago did recoup, slacking demand and investment casting I think helped.