Originally Posted by
Picchio Special
Unfortunately, those numbers stamped on the dropout are meaningless, or at least have no meaning that anyone I know has been able to determine.
If the decals match the ones on eBay, other things to look for to identify an early Mexico are a club-only on the fork crown (later ones also have "Colnago" stamped there), long Campagnolo dropouts vs. the shorter ones, absence of top tube braze-on cable guides (the green one on eBay appears to have these, so is either a repaint or later than the seller thinks). If it doesn't have these features, it could still be 70's era, but wouldn't necessarily be as collectable as the gold one that went for $1100.
The gold one had the top tube cable guides, as does mine. So far the differences I have seen are mine does not have the long rear dropouts, and the decal, while similar, has a club in the C of Colnago. Mine also has the club only on the fork crown. There is no Columbus tubing sticker on the frame, and it doesn't appear to have ever been there. I doubt the frame is a repaint as the decals are peeling up. Everything else on mine, except the color, seems to match the frame that sold a couple weeks ago.
Unfortunately, like a lot of other older bicycles, this one has seen its share of use and many of the components have been replaced with period correct components, but it doesn't give me much to go on for validating the age of the bicycle. The SR rear derailleur is pat 79, which may be correct, but the crankarms do not have matching date codes. Chain ring is NR, seatpost is NR, headset is Colnago, the list goes on.
Someday I'd like to refinish the bicycle to original condition, and I guess it might help if I had an idea of what year it really is...
Kurt