1970's colnago: assessing rust/dent
 

Hello, I'm looking at buying a 1970's colnago with two areas of minor damage. Overall I'd say the frame and paint are in good condition, possibly 7-8 out of 10.

1. Some minor rust spots on the bottom of the bottom bracket shell. How do you deal with rust on a bike frame? On my car, I just dremel it out, but no idea what's recommended on a bike frame.

2. A dent in the downtube about 1" from the bottom bracket. Normally I wouldn't be too worried about this size of a dent, except in this case where it is located so close to the high-stress area of the bottom bracket.

Never owned an old bike before, nor any bike with rust/dents. Any thoughts appreciated!

pics...or we get the pitchforks ;)

1. I like the back edge of a butter knife for removing small spots of rust. Better control than a dremel.

2. Would be nice to see a picture before rendering an opinion. But I have a small dent on a chain stay near the BB. Never had a problem with it.

It's hard to answer without picks. The more rare the Colnago, the more I'm inclined to accept "issues." No way to really judge in this case. If it's a less rare bike, it's much more likely an undamaged one will come along at some point.

Yes I have the pics but I can't find the USB cable for my camera. Will post asap, thanks!

Oh, and you might want to contact BF member shnibop - he unfortunately knows all about rust and Colnagos :)

Right, Alex?

DD

OK, I finally found that cable. I have all the different flavours of USB, but friggin' Sony has a proprietary format. Anyway, two of the photos show the dent on the down tube (ie the spot with the missing paint) and the 3rd shows the underside of the bottom bracket where there is some deeper corrosion. All feedback appreciated, thanks!

I'd have no problem riding that, but we'll see what others say. What I'm curious to know is how does one get a dent in that location? I'm imagining a multiple bike crash in a race, maybe a pedal could get through the chainring. Or possibly it could have happened when the frame wasn't built up. Who knows? Have you gone over the rest of the frame with a fine-tooth tricorder? As far as the rust goes, it doesn't seem horrible. Is that the original paint afayk?

Why do you think it is from 1970?

The dent is in an unfortunate place. I would want a deal, as I do not think it is from 1970.

Looks to me like somebody overtightened some sort of clamp there?

Overall photographs and selling price are needed to offer an opinion on whether you should buy it....

1. I'll stick to my original answer.
2. I'd ride it.

Can't say if it is worth the price. That is your decision to make.

It is a likely a 1973 from the decals and lack of braze-ons but I am no expert on bikes like this. Sorry about the title, I hit return too soon and then wrote the sub-title of the thread thinking it was still the title. Don't know if it is the original paint or not, not sure what the clues are for spotting a repaint. It's got what looks to be the original chrome on the crown, not sure if that would have been spared in a repaint? The Weinmann concave wheels seem to be newer, I don't see any features on the brake levers, but the rest seems to be the original New Record. 3ttt stem/bars might be newer. I looked over the frame in some detail and saw no other damage to speak of. Seller is asking $1200, I think he had the bike for a future project but never actually rode it.

It doesn't look like serious rust. Sometime during the off-season, strip the parts off the frame and soak the BB shell in oxalic acid or white vinegar to get rid of the rust. Then cover the bare patches with nail polish or linseed oil to seal it up. It will eventually rust again in those areas, but with a little care you should get several decades of good riding out of it.

1200 seems kind of high to me given the condition, but maybe I'm missing something. I would certainly want to know the year, and do some research on what similar ones have sold for. And look at what else 1200 will get you, which could be quite a lot.

No, I don't think it's worth $1200 either. Now that I've done a bit more reading, I think there is another date problem as well. I don't believe I saw that the lugs had any cutouts. From what's written online, this doesn't seem to match up with the early 1970's. Thanks for all the feedback everybody. I may make a low-ish offer and see how much seller will negotiate on the price.

Your pic of the full bike is exactly as my 1974 as-found, right down to the blue band on the down tube. The bike appears to be a '74 Molteni replica (as in: replica of the colors of Eddy's team bikes, branded Merckxs). Pic seems to show the long Campagnolo 1010a rear dropouts, short fluted seatstay caps and the rear derailleur cable stop about 3" from the dropout. If the fork crown has clovers but no "Colnago" engraving and there are two round holes in the fork stiffening tangs, I'd lay money on '74. '75 they changed the decal set and began to use fork tangs with a clover cut out, and the fluted seatstay caps were longer.

That said, $1200 is a bit much as the couple of detail shots clearly state: for that money, you don't want any dents - although paint chips come with the territory - and the components should be in fairly good shape and consistent with the period. In one pic there is a pedal displayed that is certainly not period correct!

Good luck, and share more if you get this rough diamond.

DD

If you do purchase it, get rid of those feckin' ugly wheels and tires, stat! :twitchy:

Is this a real '74, or a replica of a '74?

Thanks for the additional info Drillium... but I still can't quite put it all together. There is only a clover on the fork crown, no 'C' or 'Colnago', but, there are no holes or clover cutouts in the fork tangs on this bike. Seller said the plain fork tangs means the bike was NOT a '72 or '71. Perhaps the fork is not a match to the frame?

Someone just posted a NOS 1974 on Ebay:

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/NOS-1973-1974...item4aae7b82f2

I agree, the wheels would be the first thing to go! Front wheel has a busted spoke and a sizeable wobble as it stands.

I'd walk away. There are better bikes out there for less money, with good provenance and no dents in funny places..