I made a new friend, Geoff, a former racer who lived between Seattle and the Bay Area (south).

He knows his stuff and bike history.

He told to me that he met with Mike Sinyard about a Tandem.

I said, "Oh, did Jim Merz build it? His tandems are pretty."

He said, "no. Tim Neenan was the guy at the time, and he didn't want to build a tandem."

Then he said what sounded like the impossible, or at least wrong with his info.

"Mike was interested in entering the Tandem market, and had Colnago make a couple. Thats what I have."


This is odd to me on more than one level. But a couple of things.

1, Geoff seems sincere and knows his stuff.
2, Colnago was NOT famous for tandems. If I were to have a late 70's Italian make a tandem, I would have gone with Sante Pogliaghi. His tandems are stout.

I continued my trip home and am now waiting for Geoff to send me some pics.

Feel free to chime in on this.

Robert

Subbed to hear how this plays out

I could swear that somebody on C&V has a blue Colnago tandem. I just can't quite remember who it is. You wouldn't happen to recall, would you Rob?

I do have one of eleven made. But it has nothing to do with Specialized.

Eavesdropping.

Why would it surprise anyone if Colnago did a few bespoke side jobs. It's the Italian Way. BFD, eh ?

At the time, Specialized was looking east for their products.

and

Ernie had no problems selling his products with his name on them. I have a hard time seeing him make a frame for someone else.

After all, he famously destroyed a friendship with Cino Cinelli for not allowing Colnago's name to be printed on a saddle, resulting with never using a Cinelii product again and only using 3ttt.

Had he said "3 Rensho," I would have thought, "that tracks."

Yeah that does make more sense.

The rift was a result of much deeper tensions with Cinelli stressing maintaining the culture of in house craftsmanship and subtle branding. Colnago on the the other hand outsourced a majority of their production and began pantographing everything with their logo as a way of selling more assembled bikes rather than the traditional supplier of frames and letting the customer/bike shop build up the bike. Cinelli did not want their products defaced and effectively rebranded as Colnago.

Photos would help a lot.
Brent

Back in mid to late 80s, the Bike Haus in Merced Calif specialized in tandems and the owners had a black Colnago tandem that they raced…got smoked by them a few times. I’ve seen other Colnago tandems over the years at tandem rallies and other events so I don’t think they are super rare.

I don’t see Specialized turning to Colnago or anywhere in Europe for a bike…USA or Japan. They already had bought Ritchey Mtn Bikes, so why not get a Ritchey road tandem which is superior to anything out of Italy in my not so humble opinion.

3Rensho would also be more to Specialized’s liking than a Colnago. For those interested,
there has been a 3Rensho tandem for sale on Craigslist in Bay Area, very cheap, like less than $500.00. Too big for me (23/20) otherwise I would have snatched it up.

All indications were that their tandems were contacted out most likely to Romani who also built tandems for other Italian brands. They would have had the jigs, specialized fitting, tubing and expertise to build them efficiently and marginally profitable.

The Colnago tandems are rare. All 11 built are known and we talk to each other.

According to Geoff, his Colnago tandem is like 1982. Geoff also owns some Eisentraut and Bruce Gordon. In fact he has a couple of his bikes on display at the Marin museum.

I don't doubt his word. I'm just surprised by it.

As to Ritchey, those tandems are simply art. I have another buddy with one and it is gorgeous. But what year did Specialized buy Ritchie? It was roughly from around '97/98 to maybe 1999/2000. Specialized and Ritchey had come to some sort of agreement to be business partners around that time, this was before Specialized morphed into the super-giant it is today.

Geoff's Colnago/Specialized tandem would have been before Ritchie was involved other than inspiration for the Stumpjumper.

Somebody mentioned pictures. I'm waiting for Geoff to send me some.


Meanwhile, here is a Lighthouse tandem (blowing out the Tim Neenan doesn't make tandems argument) and my own Colnago tandem. (photo credit: Bikeshearer)

How do you know about the "friendship"?

Cinelli did not want to share his brand. It is actually a modern phenomenon, being exclusive, if you compare it to FB putting anyone's brand on a hub. Very early Cinelli branded his stems with other brands, Legnano being the most frequent, but that ended in the 50s.

Seems Colnago found a vendor to do his bidding, Cinelli did not dilute his brand. Why would there be ill will?

I'm not making this up. I heard the story from more than one respected occasional poster here (who was active in the industry).

Had it confirmed by those who know more on Classic Rendezvous.

If you want to know more, message me.

They both literally got what they wanted.

So some time ago, I saw a Specialized road tandem, it looked very much like a Sequoia, not
like a Colnago. I am always skeptical of all these “I was told” or “I hear”’stories on the internet. When somebody who should know, like a Sinyard or Merz, speaks up, I will remain skeptical that Specialized went Italian for a tandem build. Just seems a bit incongruous to what Specialized was doing when they went from parts to bikes.

Did you know this one is for sale?

https://www.ebay.com/itm/146442861800

I didn’t know that there was going to be a road tandem event in the Olympics?

Thats a helluva lotta money for a parts bin rebuild based on a tall story of an event that didn’t exist.

So Geoff is google-able. He was a famous mountain uni-cycle racer.

I did not know that was a thing.

He bought his tandem straight from Mike Sinyard.

Stay tuned.

I think Markeologist was referring to Specialized having purchased a Ritchey Mountainbike which they copied when designing the Stumpjumper.
I am looking forward to your revelation, but Sinyard would have known that the best tandems were being made on the West Coast of the USA at the time.

Of course he knew that, whether he wanted to pay for that is the far bigger question that I think we all know the answer to.