Colnago in the US
 

Is the US distributor process broken? Does Colnago care about US sales? Or is the company having financial problems?

I've noticed very few LBS sell Colnagos now and even fewer even stock them. There's an ad for seeing and test riding the new V1-R but there are only ten stores in the entire US. The only one in the east is R&A in NY and that model doesn't even show up on their website.

Several years ago Colnago dealers were fairly common. What happened? Is anyone even buying them now?

They seem to be a bit "exclusive" at the moment, but not sure why. There are a lot of shops selling them around here but I don't see a lot of people actually riding them. My LBS sells them, the owner rides one, but I went in to the same shop and bought a Pinarello. They don't keep a lot of them actually in stock, in fact there was only one display model in the shop last time I was there. Every time I have been in the shop when another customer was taking delivery of a bike it was always some other brand. I have friend living in another country that ordered a C60 a few months ago, and the expected delivery for it is in February, so that might be one reason if indeed it is the factory's fault. I don't know many people with money burning a hole in their pocket that want to wait 3-4 months for that new bike.

All that being said, I've kinda noticed a waxing/waning pattern to their popularity over time anyway. They seem to sponsor a lot of teams(mostly in pro continental road, CX, and MTB), so I don't think they are in trouble but perhaps it is due to lack of demand for their bikes in the US?

Go C60 or go home... :) I think that's the only carbon one still made in Ernesto's basement factory.

I think US riders are more enamoured of Pinarello right now. I think Bicycling magazine picked Pinarello as "bike of the year" a few years in a row, and of course they've had two Tour de France winners on their bike recently too.

There is a lot of competition for the big dollars right now, and maybe new riders don't feel the cachet of riding a Colnago when there are also $10k bikes from Specialized, Cervelo, Trek, blahblahblah all claiming to be the most advanced bank account emptiers? There may also be some dilution of the high dollar spenders with other more boutique brands available like Parlee, Cipollini, and custom builders.

They're more difficult to sell than many brands. High buy-in, lots of custom fitting and custom ordering, and they're more expensive than most brands. takes a very particular shop to make it work. I don't think the website is particularly up to date too. you could try talking directly to your local shops' management and ask- many shops have contacts to brands, even if they don't have them on the sales floor, or they'll know what brands the neighboring shops sell.

They are difficult to find here in the States. In my market there is one LBS that carries them but I have only see one floor model there. I have never seen one on the road, except for mine of course. I set my eyes on them about a year ago but was discouraged by the network around me. I even emailed their U.S. employees and called and left voice mails with several of them. I got no response so I wrote them off and focused on Wilier instead. To make a long story short, a forum member emailed me about excelsports.com and stated that they had CLX frames and complete bikes for sale. I contacted them and two days later received my new CLX frame. I had never seen it in person before this. After completing the build out, I can say that I love this bike. I totally get why other owners feel the same way about the brand.
I do not care if they ever get their act together in the States as I rather enjoy having something different. I am not saying that it is better than any other bike as I believe that they are all good bikes. I simply like having a bike that is not the same as everybody else's and one that I also love. I liked my old Felt, but I love this bike.

I see you've got your location listed as Northern VA. It'd be a bit of a hike, but Bicycle Sport in Charlotte, NC is a Collage dealer. I purchased my first two road bikes from them, and can vouch that they are truly a great shop. Ben, the owner, mentioned to me when I was there in December that they were going to be having Colnago demo days at the end of January/beginning of Feb. Perhaps if you call them they can tell you what demo bikes they'll have available and when, and you could take a trip. Lots of great stuff to do in Charlotte.

If you live in northern VA then I'm sure you've been to Bicycle Pro Shop, but you're right they don't stock many models. Getting a test ride is almost impossible, but the owner there let me try his out. Once you know what you want, there are plenty of shops this side of the mason-dixon line that will order you one and cut you a deal.

Having said that, I'm sure the market analysis of the collective 41 is more or less on target. Ernesto's marketing just isn't keeping up with the competition. or maybe they just don't care about selling more bikes than everyone else.

One of the LBSes around here sells them. They actually sell quite a few, but they are almost all special order situations. They are just too expensive and in too low demand for shops to justify stocking one. Plus, people who buy them tend to know what components they want, so it makes more sense to special order.

At the same time, the LBS owner went through a couple different Colnagos then got an Argon 18. His comment to me was for the money, he just couldn't justify buying the Colnagos anymore when the Argon was just impressive at half the cost.

I had a friend who owned a LBS in Philly. He used to carry them until the early to mid-2000s. He said their Texas distributor was a PITA to deal with in general. He also told me that the distributor would constantly pressure him to sell the bikes but then they turned around and opened another dealer a mile away from his shop. To make matters worse, the local rep would provide frames to unauthorized LBS. I made the mistake of mentioning that a riding buddy of mine got a C-40 from an unauthorized shop. It didn't sit well with my owner friend.

It's a niche brand selling cult products to cult buyers. To me, it also doesn't help that their offerings are so boring. The AC-R and v1-R are two of the least compelling top end bikes I can think of. The Master and the C60 are at least distinctive and interesting but also extremely expensive and difficult to get your hands on.

I have just built up a C60 and waiting for my wheelset to complete the bike.

US prices are almost $2500 higher than European prices, but they have stock at the largest US dealer.

I purchased from Europe, after waiting for three months for the color I wanted and the dealer could still not give me a final date, I took what I could get. I believe they only build about 1,900 C60 frames a year in Italy. The V1-R made in Taiwan had big shipments recently in Europe, so they are becoming more available there.

Ernesto is handling the volume he can manage from his basement shop, not interested in doing more and I believe the Taiwan supply will be a bit more available.

I have been riding a C40 among other bikes for almost 15 years now and it is still my favorite. Unlike crashes on other carbon fiber frames, this one has held up despite being through hell and back. So for me the C60 was a natural choice and from Europe the price was less than a Trek Madone 7. There is no comparison in fit and finish, Ernesto even has his clover micro painted inside the water bottle alan cap screws.

I believe at the end of the day from an Engineering point of view a bike frame remains a very simple thing, so from the one to the next it won't really make you any faster. In terms of resale value, Colnago still holds its own against other manufacturers though.

To answer the original poster, I don't believe Colnago sees the US as a very big market and Colnago USA through a limited dealer network maintains a high price niche market, focusing on low volume high margin.

Don't shoot the messenger, but when you talk to designated Colnago dealers in Europe, they believe Asia has destroyed what use to be the high end frame market. The one I purchased from would not warranty a V1-r if the rider weighs more than 70kg, because he personally takes care of all his own customers problems and does not trust light weight production from the Giant factory in Taiwan, where many other top brand frames come from.

BTW, Campagnolo is slowly heading the same way, with exorbitant prices in the US compared to Europe and still manufacturing out of Italy and some in Romania which is in Europe.

As far as RA cycles is concerned, mentioned by the original poster, when I asked them why prices are so much higher than Europe, they basically gave me the finger. Do a Google vendor reference on them and you will notice they are not very popular. I would trust them as far as I can see them, when it comes to warranty issues.

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