Road Cycling - Colnago Rapid 2004

Has anyone purchased a Colnago Rapid ? I'm having a lot of trouble finding any information on them. Is it an asso frame? Or is it a separate frame altogther. Why do teh USA sites not seem to have anything about them? www.colnago.com has it on there...and I know we have them in Canada because I test road one the other day.

Anyway I am thinking of buying one, ticket price is 2600$ with all campy veloce. This will be my first road bike, but I have been mountain biking since I've been able to walk. (I'm 21 at the moment).

Anyway let me know if anyone has any experience with this, I want this to last and I am leary that colnago "the dream bike builder" has 4 year warranties and trek offers life time warranties :( But I do like this bike (its the black and yellow paint job, very sharp)

Thanks,
Chado

G'day,

know the brand...dunno the bike. Colnago in general, have a huge reputation as a greta italian builder. I don't know the frame you are considering, but pretty much all 'lower' end ALU frames, (doesn't matter the manufacturer) are welded in Tiawan. I wouldn't worry about the warranty to much. Treks lifetime warranty is one thing, but ever read exactly what that actually means?.....Its a nice marketing tool., nothing more. they will warranty the frame for life against all the things that the Govt/consumer laws insist they cover anyway.Try taking your Trek frame back in 10 years & see how you go!. If you like the Colnago...buy it, the warranty makes no difference in this instance,

cheers,

Hitchy

cheers,

Hitchy

Thanks for the reply!

Ok, well the issue I have with it possibly being made in Taiwan is that for the price of this all aluminum bike I could buy a full carbon bike from supergo, or a Trek 5000, 2200 or if I added a few more $ a 5200.

Now, I loved how this bike felt and all but 2600$CDN for a all aluminum bike is quite a bit of cash this year.

So, I guess i'm looking for more reasons why I should drop all this cash on an all aluminum bike with a lower end group set (not that I wont be happy with it, I'm just trying to justify the large outlay of cash on a bike that has lower specs then everything else in that price range).

I guess I'm not a typical Colnago buyer...I kinda get the impression most people shopping for a colnago aren't very concerned with the cost. Hmmm.

Chado

g'day,

You are right in thinking that most people looking at high end Colnago's aren't overly concerned with the cost. The 'dream' 'C40' or C50 frames are arguably in the very best there is to be had (apart from my KG 486 of course)....The lower end frames, (& I'm assuming this is what we are talking about), have generally had the manufacturing outsourced to somewhere like Taiwan., to fill a marketing spot in their overall range.Many many companies are doing this .....so you need to compare them against similarly spec'd frames...Being welded in Taiwan isn't necessarily a bad thing, only if you assume you're getting an Italian marque frame....maybe you could learn to say 'Colnago' with a Taiwaneese accent?,

cheers,

Hitchy

lol,

Well the thing is that the pricing on this "low end" model is on par with the Bianchi Veloce which is a reparto course frame which I believe is made in Italy (thats what I read elsewhere anyway). If that is true then even though Colnago refers to this almost 3KCDN bike as their low end bike, that it may very well be made in Italy? The LBS told me that the only bike I was getting under 3K at there shop that was all Italian (except the Mavic rims...but the hubs are campagnolo) was this one. The marinoni's are italian crafted but made in montreal and the argons..well lol. And thats about all they carry. They mainly stock colnagos...I've never seen so many in one place. But since I've been there once and talked to them briefly before doing any other research I want to cover everything else before I go back there check on a few things to make sure they are as straight as they seem and then go for it.

The owner is a former olympian and a member of the local cycling club which has been around about 100 years heh so I think he's trust worthy...seems like a nice guy and all but you know... a 2nd/3rd/4th/100th opinion never hurts :)

Chad