# Vintage Colnago identification



## samsalonen (Jul 12, 2010)

Hi all!

I would need some help in identifying a vintage Colnago frame I just bought. According to the seller it is a 70's frame. As far as I know it might be a Colnago Super or Colnago Mexico from the 70's - 80's.

Pictures of the frame and fork:

























































































Thanks in advance for the help!


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## boneman (Nov 26, 2001)

*Much later*

Late 80's to mid-90's. It has bosses for two bottles which came around that time. Ernesto made racing bikes so he didn't see the need for two bottles for a long time. Haha, you always have a service car following you. Same logic for pump pegs. Nada. It also has the rear brake cable housing going through the TT. Also the paint with the faux carbon part which I would place around 1995-1997. Do you have a picture of the BB, both from above and below? Also, assuming it's not been coldset, what's the distance between the rear drop outs inside to inside?


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## slamy (Mar 15, 2004)

This frame is from the late 80's early 90's. The reasons are: internal rear brake routing, two water bottle mounts, colnago drop-outs instead of columbus. It's not a mexico, because they had crimped tubes. I would think it might be an older super or some sort of SLX connix frame. If you take the bottom bracket off reach your finger up the seat tube and feel for rifled tubing. It's a nice frame but definitely not late 70's early eighties.


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## josephr (Jun 17, 2010)

slamy said:


> If you take the bottom bracket off reach your finger up the seat tube and feel for rifled tubing.


find the C-spot???


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## slamy (Mar 15, 2004)

boneman said:


> Late 80's to mid-90's. It has bosses for two bottles which came around that time. Ernesto made racing bikes so he didn't see the need for two bottles for a long time. Haha, you always have a service car following you. Same logic for pump pegs. Nada. It also has the rear brake cable housing going through the TT. Also the paint with the faux carbon part which I would place around 1995-1997. Do you have a picture of the BB, both from above and below? Also, assuming it's not been coldset, what's the distance between the rear drop outs inside to inside?


LOL Looks like you beat my post by a minute. I agree with everything you said. And you're right with the faux carbon spray it might be mid 1990's. Either way, it's a beautiful bike.


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## boneman (Nov 26, 2001)

*Too funny*

And I also agree it could be a Conic SLX. I think they made it for one, maybe two years with the curved fork before going to the Prescia. I had a pic somewhere of one with the faux finish....here we go, 1994 Master O, sold for a bit over $1,500 NOS a couple of years ago. I've never seen one of the faux carbon paint schemes with this much coverage. Usually it's a relatively small area.


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## samsalonen (Jul 12, 2010)

Thanks guys for your fast analyze! Did not think it would be an late 70's/early 80's frame, and it actually does not bother me that it isn't. It surely is a beautiful bike, and based on the pictures it is in mint condition. Might well be an Conic SLX, at least the pictures I can find on a short search looks the same as the pics I have of the bike. 

I'll get back with better pictures and information as soon as the frame is delivered to me, hope it will arrive soon (can't wait for that).


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## samsalonen (Jul 12, 2010)

boneman said:


> I had a pic somewhere of one with the faux finish....here we go, 1994 Master O, sold for a bit over $1,500 NOS a couple of years ago. I've never seen one of the faux carbon paint schemes with this much coverage. Usually it's a relatively small area.


Sounds like the 260€ i paid for the frame was a bargain in that case, the faux carbon sure looks good.


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## mondayC (May 22, 2008)

I have nothing to offer for ID'ing this bike, but I like that frame a lot.


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## pigpen (Sep 28, 2005)

bunches of rust in the seat tube.
clean it out as best you can and shoot it with some frame saver.


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## robert_shawn (Oct 5, 2005)

The fork is definitely mid 80's or earlier, Colnago introduced the Precisa. IIRC, after that there were no curved blade forks. It would help to have pictures of the brake bridge and the BB.

If the fork is the one the frame came with, then the frame has been repainted. I am pretty sure they did not have any paint jobs like that back then, though they did have some pretty cool ones. I don't remember when Colnago started offering frames with internal RB cable routing.

On the other hand, if the fork is older than the frame: It kind of looks like a mid 90's Technos frame. The techos frames had the internal RB routing and round tubing, as apposed to the crimped "Master" tubing. 

Is the Top tube a slightly smaller diameter than the downtube?

Whatever the case, it's a sweet frame. Colnagos have a fantastic ride.

Shawn


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## INDECS (Sep 22, 2009)

Oh, there were definitely curved forks in the mid 90's. Up untill '97 I believe.
Also, Tecnos frames were profiled and had different seatclusters (engraved).

I'm quite sure this frame is a respray of an early/mid 90s Thron tubing frame. 
C94/C95/C96. They were lower end with round and kinda heavy tubing.
First pic shows a C94 I once had, the catalog scans show the '96 Thron frame with curved forks and the '97 with straight ones.


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## RichardHead (Feb 19, 2007)

I have an 80's Conix SLX.
Internal TT cable routing, externally-fluted downtube, straight blade fork.


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