HELP ID'ing what I thought was a Colnago.
 

Hey all! I'm new to the forum and fairly new to cycling in general!

I'm into my second season and I decided to go vintage and buy a vintage bike at a local bike shop that sells used bikes. I looked around and didn't know much about what I was looking at especially the in the mold markings for certain companies and all that but I found what I thought was a beautiful Colnago... I knew what certain names meant and when I saw a Colnago I freaked.

After countless hours of research I came to the realization that this is most likely NOT a Colnago and wanted to not only confirm that but also get an ID on this frame and the campi parts on it. Unfortunately this is a few months AFTER I purchased this bike so I'm a little late.

It's a great lightweight bike and the friction shifting has been taking me awhile to get used to but I love it and has given me another look into the sport. I was thinking about repainting this bike and putting original decals on it but since this is most likely not a real Colnago I think I will repaint it and either use it's original name (if someone is knowledgable enough to ID it) or come up with a new name and have some fun.

So far this is what I can gather:

FRAME: Unidentified
FORKS: Unidentified
SET: Campagnolo
- Front and back derailleur
- Seat post
- Crank
- Breaks
- Wheel lock
HANDLEBARS: Guerciotti 3TTT

Thats about it on my end folks other then a serial number that is in one of the attachments. It reads "56 652".
I really hope someone can help me out!

Thanks much.
Cheers
Jon

Very nice bike really like the stem and compnents. Why do you think it is not Colnago I see little on this bike to indicate it is not high 70's which matchs with Colnago? Looking at it the only othe bikes that come to mind are top end Italian, Windsor or Zeus all of which would be on par with a Conago so I just could not se someone faking or selling a bike of this quality as different brand.

Really?? I honestly thought they were all branded with the CLUB logo where the triangles are currently and along the frame I normally saw the name Colnago stamped in various places depending on the model/year. Plus the paint job and decals don't look like any of the other Colnagos I've seen online. It made me start to wonder. Would love to hear more feedback!

Thanks zukahn1!

Firstly, welcome to the Bike Forums.

Let's see some better pictures. Based on what I see and it is difficult to see in your pictures, I would think the bike to be as described. Again, better pictures will help you get more accurate answers.

Show pictures of the head tube from the side. Show the rear drops. Show the seat tube lug clearly. Measure the size of the seat post and measure also the width of the bottom bracket housing. All of this will help with identifying the bicycle.

+1 Also really nice Glory shot of the enter bike drive side best possible helps a lot. Preferably outdoor lighting with nice background.

Hey guys,

Here are some new pictures. After further reviewing the bike it looks like the rear drops have GIPIEMME engraved on them. The "IE" is worn off but I'm pretty positive that's what it said. The bottom bracket housing measures just under 3 inches.

Hopefully this helped a bit more!
Cheers

Jon

It doesn't have many Colnago hallmarks and the top tube cable routing is a fairly old style that I have never seen on a Colnago. As you mentioned no signature Colnago cutouts in the lugs, head tube lugs are not the usual Colnago style, seat stay caps are not common Colnago style, Gipiemme branded dropouts were rarely seen on Colnagos (usually Campy or Colnago branded), etc. It could still be a Colnago but it doesn't show the obvious signs. Decals look correct but anyone can get Colnago decals.

It might be a Colnago Sport. You don't see them very often but they were built by smaller companies for Colnago and sold in parts of Europe and Canada. I had one, I think the drops were also Gipiemme and it definitely had a very similar cut out on the BB.

info@colnago.com might be a good place to start since you have a serial number and pictures.

Thanks jet sanchEz!
I will email them right away and see if they can help me out!

Yeah, if it's a Colnago, its something along the lines of one of those deals. I'm skeptical.

I just emailed Colnago-America (as the info@colnago.com did not work for some reason) so I'll let you guys know what they say if they can help me out.

If it is a Colnago Sport what year would it be? I would love to try and find some pictures on the net to try and find some similarities. And it would kind of make sense if it is a Sport since I live in Canada If what you are telling me is true about these frame types being used in the North-American and European markets we might be closer to ID'ing this bike.

Thanks!

ps
Just found this site ( http://www.foxgalleria.com/bici/sport/index.html ) which has similar markings like mine. Possible match? This one is an early 80s sport however on mine notice the fact that it has two waterbottle carrying bolt sets which leads me to believe it is late 80s... Thoughts?

My thought is that your thinking makes sense.

A little update.

I am in contact with someone at Colnago America and they now have everything I have on the bike. They will verify everything once Colnago HQ in Italy return from vacation starting May 1.

I shall keep you all posted!
Thanks so much for all your feedback!

Cheers

I am very interested in odd Colnagos. There are a bunch of photos on my Flickr account 9EhGiOeS'. Ed

And they're not all of delta brakes?

Some really cool bikes Ed!
I actually came across your album when I was trying to find more photos on a Colnago Sport. I noticed right away the Arrow shapes in the mold on the Ukraine Sport you have! That gave me some hope. Well that photo and a few others.

Hopefully I'll get some good news next week!

Have you noticed anything similar from my model to some of yours?
Let me know! I would still love to get some feedback from more Colnago fans out there.

Cheers

Glad to hear they were so good about getting back to you. Hope you get a final answer.

Hey gang... bad news... Colnago got back to me and turns out it isn't a real Colnago. I feel like a complete dunce for paying what I did for this bike. Its got a nice group set and handlebars but the frame is not Colnago.

So moving forward I would like to figure out this mystery frame!... if it even has a name. Right now I have a serial number "56 652" and GIPIEMME written on the inserts for the back wheel AND written on the drop downs (on that bar that connects between the two drop downs near the rear break. Would this lead me to believe that it is a GIPIEMME frame? or did they just make the rear drop downs.

Any information to help me identify this frame would be really great! Thanks much
Jon

That's good to know! At least it isn't some nonsense frame! Now the only question is which companies used Gipiemme dropouts... Also I noticed this for the first time today. This is found where the rear break is. Now I'm a newbie when it comes to vintage bikes and cycling in general but frames were normally not made in 2 pieces correct? Would someone care to explain why there would be Gipiemme markings on the frame where the rear break is? (see attachment).

Thanks much!
Jon

That brake bridge is also a part that would be brazed in by the frame builder. These parts were made by many companies including Gipiemme.

For instance: http://www.framebuilding.com/brake.htm

and here are some dropouts, etc: http://www.framebuilding.com/NEWPART...20Dropouts.htm

Ah... I see. Thanks lostarchitect! Now the question still remains what kind of bike is this really... Other then the BB are there any other areas on the bike that would determine it's make? I have a serial number (listed above) and that is it. If anyone has any idea of a company I should look into further based on the look of this bike let me know! I could really use all of your experience and knowledge!

Thanks in advance!

Also, is the bike a 56 cm size? If so the first 2 numbers in the serial probably refer to the size.

Other than that, and what I wrote above, I don't have much more info that could help you, sorry. It's often very difficult to determine what something was after it's been repainted, etc.

deltas
 

No I only have 8 pair of Deltas. Ed

I think there were 8 generations of Sports from 1970 to about mid "90's". Most of those bikes on my Flickr page are from EBay. I only have 6 Colnagos. Ed