# 1999 C-40



## nrs1 (Jul 31, 2007)

I just bought a C40 of '99 vintage. I'm trying to figure out what kind of fork in on the bike. It is a threaded, straight bladed, 43mm rake, fork and appears to be made of aluminum? Does anyone know?

Thanks,
Neil


----------



## tmluk (Sep 19, 2005)

If the fork is metal and has the "club" on the fork crown, then it is steel.
Colnago never did make an Al fork for C40 ... almost 100% sure.


----------



## nrs1 (Jul 31, 2007)

*C40 Fork*

The fork does not have a separate crown, like a typical steel fork. It looks like a 1 piece, just like a carbon fork, smooth and rounded shoulders. I can't tell for sure the material, but it does not sound dead like the rest of the bike when tapped. The fork looks to be orignally part of the frame, as opposed to being purchased separately, due to the matching paint scheme, although one could possibly have matched the paint. This would have been difficult with the multi-colored paint fade scheme though. It does not react to magnets, ruling out typical steel material.

Thanks for the inputs,
Neil


----------



## hfc (Jan 24, 2003)

Mine bought used came with an after-market Profile fork. I'd always thought that the older C40's came with the steel Precisa fork. I have seen the Precisa on sale on Ebay before with the same paint scheme. I agree with the above post in that C40 never had an aluminum fork.


----------



## tmluk (Sep 19, 2005)

I should have looked at the pictures. Sorry.
First , the Colnago Star fork for C40 has threadless steer-tube. The fork that is on this bike has threaded steer-tube; the steer-tube must be metal. So I am pretty sure it is not the Star Carbon fork. Second, all Colnago steel forks come with fork-ends with "Colnago" stamping on them. Third, Colnago do make two other carbon forks - Force "carbon threadless steer-tube" and Flash which I recall has a metal steer-tube. I need to go home and check the forks available in late-90's early-00's.

Can you take a close-up picture of the fork-crown area and the fork-ends area w/o the wheels.

Otherwise, it could be an after-market fork but the paint-job sure look very good.


----------



## nrs1 (Jul 31, 2007)

*C40 fork*

Here are some close-up pictures of the crown area. There were no colnago markings on the front drop outs.

























Neil


----------



## nrs1 (Jul 31, 2007)

edited


----------



## waterford (Sep 30, 2004)

colnago did make al fork


----------



## T-shirt (Aug 15, 2004)

Alan built their aluminum lugged frames, right?

Maybe it's an Alan fork.


----------



## tmluk (Sep 19, 2005)

That is true, Alan did built Al frames and, I dare to say, the Carbitubo frames for Colnago in the late-80's and early-90's. Both had twin down-tube construction

Yes, I do agree, it looks like an Al fork because of the seam at the crown and blades joint. My Al fork is similarly constructed. Whether it is Alan fork, I am not sure. But I would recommend up-grading that fork to a 1" carbon fork. Al fork doesn't spell performance; and I had an Al fork fall apart on me :cryin:. I lift my bike up and the fork blades come right off :shocked: .


----------

