# My Bike Fit Session With Ernesto



## il sogno (Jul 15, 2002)

Ernesto Colnago was in Los Angeles over the weekend doing free bike fit sessions for Colnago owners. My husband already made a reference to my post in the Lounge but I will make a more Colnago oriented post here. 

I made an appointment and dragged my year 2000 Dream over to the LBS. I swam my way through the crowd. Signore Colnago was just finishing up with a guy on a C-50. Needless to say C-50s and their owners were everywhere. 

The LBS clerk put my bike up on the trainer and after a couple of minutes they called me up for the fitting. 

There were two interpreters there. One was Massimo, the owner of Trialtir. The other was Alex, Ernesto's nephew. Massimo was kinda mean and uptight. Alex was very nice. 

Signore Colnago eyed my pedal stroke for a minute or two and then had the mechanic there lower my seatpost a few millimeters. He made a couple of suggestions on tire pressure and tire width, and then said I should go with slightly narrower bars. He told me that the wider bars make for a more leisurely handling bike. The narrower bars? He grinned at me and said, "Formula Una!". 

The Maestro was genuinely interested in what I had to say about the bike and what my riding experience has been like. I was very excited to be there and he seemed to feed off of my (and everyone else's) passion for bicycling. 

I told him I have 20,000 kilometers on the bike and asked how long can I expect the aluminum on the Dream to hold up. The answer was that already the alloy has changed it's original properties and the bike is not riding as it was when I first purchased it. The Dream should be good for another 10,000 kilometers though and most pros will get rid of their aluminum bikes after just one season on them. 

Ernesto seemed suprised or maybe impressed that a woman recreational rider would have put over 13,000 miles on one of his bikes. He treated me and every other Colnago owner as if we were a part of his family. Nieces and nephews, all of us. He was there to make sure as Colnago owners we were all comfortable on our bikes and that we were getting the most perfomance-wise out of them. 

In the last year or so I have been looking at other frame makers, idly wondering what to get if I were to retire my Dream. No more of that. Seeing the passion that the Maestro has for both his bikes *and the people who own them* has made me a Colnago family member for life. 

At the end of the session Ernesto autographed my frame. Don't know what the autograph says but wow, what a thrill this experience has been. :thumbsup:


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## Bocephus Jones II (Oct 7, 2004)

Were they hoping you'd buy a new bike? Trying to figure out the angle here. What did Trialtir and Colnago get out of this? What did the LBS get out of it? Seems like a pretty extravagant "friendraiser."


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## chuckice (Aug 25, 2004)

that's awesome...make sure to clearcoat or something over that siggy!


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## il sogno (Jul 15, 2002)

Bocephus Jones II said:


> Were they hoping you'd buy a new bike? Trying to figure out the angle here. What did Trialtir and Colnago get out of this? What did the LBS get out of it? Seems like a pretty extravagant "friendraiser."


I talked to the LBS guys yesterday. They had been trying to get Ernesto over to do something like this for a while. Since he was in SoCal for InterBike he finally said okay. 

While Signore Colnago was making handlebar suggestions to me the LBS clerk went off and got some narrower handlebars for me to check out. The LBS probably made some component sales that day and I am sure they want me to buy my next Colnago through them.


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## il sogno (Jul 15, 2002)

chuckice said:


> that's awesome...make sure to clearcoat or something over that siggy!


Did that as soon as I got home. Good thing too because it rained on me when I rode the next day.


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## chuckice (Aug 25, 2004)

il sogno said:


> Did that as soon as I got home. Good thing too because it rained on me when I rode the next day.


Awesome...I'm guessing you'll never sell that bike!


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## CarbonTi (Nov 16, 2001)

il sogno said:


> There were two interpreters there. One was Massimo, the owner of Trialtir. The other was Alex, Ernesto's nephew. Massimo was kinda mean and uptight. Alex was very nice.


It must have been quite a thrill to have met and been fitted by the Maestro. It isn't out of character that Colnago's company still make bikes that reflect his obvious passione for the sport and the machine.

It seemed notable to me that the business head of Trialtir also perhaps unwittingly reflected his attitude towards the occasion while in the midst of Colnago enthusiasts. In either case, the respective companies certainly reflect the character of the men that run them. For Colnago tifosi in the USA, that is both good and bad. 50 years of great bici and counting.


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## Guest (Oct 4, 2006)

OK, Sogno, pretty cool and all but it's not like it was somebody important - right?? 

I mean it wasn't Eddy or Ugo after all ............... ( BTW I'm ducking right now)  


(Just kidding you know)


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## Mapei (Feb 3, 2004)

A buddy of mine calls Ernesto Colnago the Stradivarius of bicycles. It's a pretty apt comparison. With Eddy Merckx being the Paganini.


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## il sogno (Jul 15, 2002)

toomanybikes said:


> OK, Sogno, pretty cool and all but it's not like it was somebody important - right??
> 
> I mean it wasn't Eddy or Ugo after all ............... ( BTW I'm ducking right now)
> 
> ...


I thought briefly of wearing my Pogliaghi jersey to this. I don't think il Maestro would have appreciated that. :nono:


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## KeithNYC (Mar 17, 2004)

*I find it interesting...*

...that you say Massimo, owner of Trialtir, was "kinda mean and uptight". Seems fitting given all the stories I've read on RBR of people flocking to Meastro in the UK 'cause of some crappy Trialtir related experience.... Anyway, great story. Makes me want a Colnago even more.:idea:


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## IcemanYVR (Jul 27, 2006)

Ernesto = Steinway, Eddy = Bosendorfer. Too each his own


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## chuckice (Aug 25, 2004)

IcemanYQQ said:


> Ernesto = Steinway, Eddy = Bosendorfer. Too each his own


*"The circle is now complete. I was once the learner but now I am the master."*


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## il sogno (Jul 15, 2002)

KeithNYC said:


> ...that you say Massimo, owner of Trialtir, was "kinda mean and uptight". Seems fitting given all the stories I've read on RBR of people flocking to Meastro in the UK 'cause of some crappy Trialtir related experience.... Anyway, great story. Makes me want a Colnago even more.:idea:


FYI Massimo is the skinny guy to the far left of the picture. He is in the white T-shirt. 

Alex, Ernesto's nephew is in the white button down shirt.


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## il sogno (Jul 15, 2002)

*And then he sang...*

A couple of days later I went back to the LBS to buy some misc. stuff and wound up talking with one of the managers there. The guy recognized me from the bike fit sessions. 

He said that one of the last people to get fitted that day was a guy who came in with a Colnago Mexico from the 1970's. It was the end of the day and Ernesto was sitting down. As soon as he saw the Mexico he leapt up and ran to the bike, practically caressing it. He had tears in his eyes and looked like he was going to burst into tears. The bike had been perfectly maintained throughout the decades. It was as if Ernesto was seeing an old friend again. 

That night the LBS staff went out to dinner at one of the nicer Italian restaurants in Santa Monica with Ernesto, Alex and Massimo. It was Saturday night and the restaurant was crowded. There were a total of about 10 of them at the table. 

They ordered dinner and a couple of bottles of wine. One thing led to another, the wine started to flow etc., and after a few glasses Ernesto stood up and burst into song. He serenaded the entire restaurant with an Italian operatic aria. The entire restaurant fell silent and listened intently. Ernesto has a beautiful tenor voice. At the end the crowd burst into applause. 

When he sat back down Ernesto told his hosts that if he had not been a frame builder he would have been an operatic tenor. 

Ernesto also said that in all his years building bicycles he had never done what he had done that day. Gone to an LBS and met the people who buy Colnagos and seen the bikes years and years after they leave the factory. He told the LBS staff that he was blown away by the passion for cycling of the men and women that buy his bicycles. He doesn’t know why he had never done this before but he must, _must _come back next year. 

The love for cycling that he saw in the Colnago owners that day reinvigorated this 74 year old man and rekindled his love for bicycles and the people who ride them. With any luck he will indeed be back next year. I highly recommend a visit with Ernesto to all the Colnago owners here. It's worth the trip to LA (or wherever he winds up doing this) to meet il Maestro and personally see the passion he has for his bikes and us, his family members.


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## CarbonTi (Nov 16, 2001)

Thanks for sharing your occasion and stories about Sig. Colnago.

It is gratifying to know that a revered, near mythical personality in the cycling world such as Ernesto Colnago is indeed a real person in the truest sense. He and Ugo are the last remaining of the Italian masters (Cinelli, Masi, De Rosa, Colnago) from the first wave.


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## uzziefly (Jul 15, 2006)

Wow, interesting story. I'm curious.. Most pros discard their alu bikes after one season.. So how long does Carbon fibre bikes last then? Any lifespan? 

and, nice to hear a lady riding a lot.. Keep on riding there.. cycling rocks!


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## fabsroman (Jul 14, 2006)

Yeah, and tennis pros probably discard a bunch of raquets during the year, and soccer pros probably throw away a bunch of cleats, and basketball players throw away a bunch of shoes, etc.

The pros change bikes every year because they are riding the newest model year. I am sure that aluminum and carbon fiber have a certain lifespan, but it isn't anything you and I should worry about. We dealt with this in another thread in ths forum where somebody was asking about how many miles people had on their Colnago C-50's because he was worried about frame deterioration. I followed the thread because I was about to buy a carbon fiber Colnago, and essentially everybody came back with it is a bunch of crap about carbon fiber frames deteriorating over time. These guys had 10,000+ miles on their C-50's and C-40's without a problem.

Steel bikes can rust, and mine has a decent amount on it after 20 years, but it still rides pretty well. I can feel some flex in it, but nothing terrible.

The one thing I don't like about carbon fiber is that after a crash you cannot tell if it is compromised without sending it away to be tested by an expert.


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## huckleberry (Jun 26, 2005)

il sogno said:


> A couple of days later I went back to the LBS to buy some misc. stuff and wound up talking with one of the managers there. The guy recognized me from the bike fit sessions.
> 
> He said that one of the last people to get fitted that day was a guy who came in with a Colnago Mexico from the 1970's. It was the end of the day and Ernesto was sitting down. As soon as he saw the Mexico he leapt up and ran to the bike, practically caressing it. He had tears in his eyes and looked like he was going to burst into tears. The bike had been perfectly maintained throughout the decades. It was as if Ernesto was seeing an old friend again.
> 
> ...



I've got tears in my eyes after reading that...

Thanks.

It's nice to know how much bikes mean to him.

Thanks for the posting.

Chris


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