lml999

I'm an old, slow Cat 4 racer.

I just finished the build on this steel Colnago cyclocross bike and got my first ride in on Friday. I think the frame dates to about 1995 or so...I was not able to get any details from Colnago on these frames, and it does not have a serial number anywhere.

I purchased the frame from a collector in the UK early last year. The frame originally came with a straight steel unicrown fork, an exact match to the fork on my Colnago Dream cyclocross. I found the carbon Colnago fork on ebay. Those 1" forks are pretty tough to find!

I've built it up with Record 10 components, single chainring in the front. Finding brakes was a challenge -- these older frames have a 60mm gap between cantilever bosses rather than the current 80mm gap. Brakes with threadless posts seemed to work best (the Spooky is a Mafac derivative).

It's a beautiful bike to ride...very well planted on the ground and good application of power. I'm still sorting out gearing and tire pressures. It seemed like I didn't have enough low gearing on Friday. My comparison is to my old Hot Tubes bike, which Toby built for me. A great bike as well and it had essentially the same components.

I haven't finished the build of the Dream cyclocross and will be curious to see how it compares. One of these two will be my primary racing bike...probably the Dream. The Dream has a double front chainring setup (with a top pull FD) and has clearance for wider tires than this steel bike.

Colnago Steel Cyclocross at Cutler Park.jpg Colnago Steel Cyclocross in the Marshes.jpg Colnago Steel Cyclocross up a tree.jpg

Enjoy!

Lee

jwood72

That is one good looking bike.

cs1

Very nice looking bike. A couple of questions: Did you gut the left hand lever? Is that a standard 135mm Campy crank? What kind of chainring did you use? And last, who made the bash guard?

WOW, I'm out of breath.

jfmckenna

Wow nice build there, good job

lml999

Thanks...it's a joy to ride.

The left hand lever is a standard Record brake lever, no shifting guts. You can find these on ebay individually or in sets. I have a set of these on my fixxie.

The crank is a standard Campy crank. It's a slightly older Chorus or Record that has the full spider (rather than the fifth connection on the crank arm. It's a standard Record chainring, 44 tooth. Bash guard came from CycloCrossWorld.com, specifically sold for Campy cranks.