Just sold my Wilier, have a decent stash of cash in the bank and looking at a new frameset right now. Always loved Colnagos, and crucially the fit on the sloping framesets (not the C60) would suit me quite well, as I need a longer head tube typically for the size than my Wilier or most other Italian bikes have.

Looking at a V1-R whilst there’s a deal on as the V2-R is on its way. But pics of any Colnagos greatfully appreciated! 8)

Getting a bit old now – 2001 CT1 that I have re-finished with a custom WC bands over polished titanium and ‘gold bling’ combo – still rides really smooth in comparison to more modern bikes:

Lovely, lovely bike doverider!

Pron ? You’re not on lfgss now 😆

V1-R is a nice bike, but the C60 is a heavy beast (best avoided unless you are a total fanboy)

1-R is a nice bike, but the C60 is a heavy beast (best avoided unless you are a total fanboy

That, I’m afraid is total bollocks. My C60 frame weighs 900g in a 56s size, not exactly portly. I’ll warrant it rides better than any 700g Chinese flyer. I’m far from a fanboy with this being my 1st ‘Nago. Had top of range road bikes from Giant, Scott, Trek, Litespeed among other but it’s by far the best riding and handling bike I’ve had.

People put too much emphasis on aero, lightweight etc. But bikes are a package, and the best is what suits the best, for me the C60 is perfection, just wish it wasn’t so expensive.

I’d put an image up but I’m on mobile and no access to photos.

my ‘gilco’ tubed ‘master pui’ – possibly the best riding bike I have, just superb feel from vintage steel frame but built-up with modern 10speed campag (and blingy wheels 😉 )

[url=https://flic.kr/p/WqBk9G]DSCF3624PS[/url] by jon bawden, on Flickr

[url=https://flic.kr/p/VcTVLE]DSCF3623PS[/url] by jon bawden, on Flickr

[url=https://flic.kr/p/WqBkub]DSCF3599PSBW[/url] by jon bawden, on Flickr

Mate of mine was so impressed that he hunted down this ‘master’ which is painted an amazing pearl-blue pearlescent colour and I built this one up for him with campag 11speed..

[url=https://flic.kr/p/VTX93J]DSCF8425PS[/url] by jon bawden, on Flickr

These ride on these frames is sublime…

Blazin-saddles – Member
1-R is a nice bike, but the C60 is a heavy beast (best avoided unless you are a total fanboy
That, I’m afraid is total bollocks. My C60 frame weighs 900g in a 56s size, not exactly portly. I’ll warrant it rides better than any 700g Chinese flyer. I’m far from a fanboy with this being my 1st ‘Nago. Had top of range road bikes from Giant, Scott, Trek, Litespeed among other but it’s by far the best riding and handling bike I’ve had.

People put too much emphasis on aero, lightweight etc. But bikes are a package, and the best is what suits the best, for me the C60 is perfection, just wish it wasn’t so expensive.

I’d put an image up but I’m on mobile and no access to photos.

POSTED 15 MINUTES AGO # REPORT-POST

Clearly a heavyweight fanboy.

At 7.25kg (15.98lb) in this build it’s not the lightest bike for the money, but the C60 proves that weight isn’t the most important consideration when choosing a road bike

from Road.CC

Annnnnnnnd before you have another pop 3 of my best mates have them. All like the ride, the fit and the comfort but complain they couldn’t get it much below 16lb. But having shelled out £3.6k for a frame and fork they’ve accepted it for what it is.

I didn’t say they were shit, I said they were heavy for this era of bikes, and they are.

So.. it’s not bollox.

Unless you think 16lb for a road bike is bad, it isn’t. Do people need bikes less than the UCI weight limit? Does it make them better riders for having lighter bikes.

Opinions are like bum holes, everyone has one. You’re not right, I’m not right. That’s why there’s choice. Saying the C60 is best avoided is nonscence, just like saying green bikes are best avoided.

Either way the OP said he wasn’t interested in a C60 so all this is irrelevant.

Personally think the VR1 looks a bit shit for a Colnago. Looks like an open mould frame.

I’d get a De Rosa or Pinarello or anything else!

All like the ride, the fit and the comfort but complain they couldn’t get it much below 16lb.

That of course is also total bollocks.

If the C60 is a 900g frame, then it’s giving away 250g to the absolute lightest. If you can build a 13lb Emonda you can build a 13.5lb C60.

FWIW the VR1 and monocoques are made by Giant in Taiwan, whereas the bonded lugged frames are built in Italy. The C40, C50 and C60 quite rightly were rated the best handling bikes of their generation – comparable ‘lightweight’ bikes of the era like the first carbon Cervelos were notorious for creaking and cracking.

That pearl white Master is lovely, but please put the bars at the right angle 😉

FWIW the VR1 and monocoques are made by Giant in Taiwan, whereas the bonded lugged frames are built in Italy. The C40, C50 and C60 quite rightly were rated the best handling bikes of their generation – comparable ‘lightweight’ bikes of the era like the first carbon Cervelos were notorious for creaking and cracking.

Why has no one mentioned those turbo saddles? 😉

I’d get a De Rosa

Tango?

if the C60 is a 900g frame

Reviews have it coming out around 1200g for the 50S with headset bearings and BB cups.

Why has no one mentioned those turbo saddles?

nothing wrong with a turbo saddle..might not be the lightest but after many 100+ mile rides it’s certainly comfy for my butt 🙂

Tango?

😀

With the matching saddle. And the flat screen on the stem aswell.

I’ve read that Ernesto Colnago, who started out as a team mechanic, always designed his bikes with a view to them being suitable for Paris Roubaix, i.e. no ultra-lightweight mountain climbing special frames.

One year the Paris Roubaix winner rode the same C40 that he had ridden in the race the previous year. Colnago made a lot of this fact in their marketing, implying that it was unusual.

It’s old, but beautiful and far more bike than I will ever need. The ride and handling is sublime, the most confidence inspiring road bike I’ve ridden.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/e4bGNs]Colnago C40[/url] by ritcheyp20, on Flickr

njee20 – Member
All like the ride, the fit and the comfort but complain they couldn’t get it much below 16lb.
That of course is also total bollocks.

If the C60 is a 900g frame, then it’s giving away 250g to the absolute lightest. If you can build a 13lb Emonda you can build a 13.5lb C60.

Fascinating, you think I don’t know what I’m on about.

Of course, you are talking bollox so back atcha.

Read what I wrote, go find all the internet crap supporting your prognosis and come back and post it’s still bollox.

The C60 is a heavy frame, mates have proven it. But they still like the bike, have you got one ? Ridden one ? I guess you’ve just hunkered down online and found some theories to support your own angst. Fine, keep going, let us all know your an internet specialist with amazeballs search engine skills.

Real folk like the bike but have always said it’s heavy, the V1-R was Colnagos way of bringing the weight down and producing a bike equal to those of the main Brand manufacturers.

Off you go, Google all you like.

He’s ‘in the industry’ you know 😉

Personally, I think Ernesto lost his way with the move from steel to plastic. Their geometry is what makes their handling, but companies like giant are the masters of carbon with the R&D budget to match.

That said a steel master of any vintage will always be a sublime bike. Light groupset and finishing kit is all that needed – speaking as the owner of two steel roadbikes, it’s not all about the weight.

Personally, I think Ernesto lost his way with the move from steel to plastic.

To be fair to him, he was the innovator who made plastic bikes mainstream with the C40. And despite that, he continued the manufacture of the steel Master frames (and I think they are still made in his factory in Italy, not offshored).

The C60 is a heavy frame, mates have proven it. But they still like the bike, have you got one ? Ridden one ? I guess you’ve just hunkered down online and found some theories to support your own angst. Fine, keep going, let us all know your an internet specialist with amazeballs search engine skills.

It’s basic maths, not any theory… even if it’s a 1200g frame (900g was cited by Blazing Saddles) then it’s still only giving away less than 1.5lbs to the lightest. So that 13lb Emonda build equals a 14.5lb C60. We can keep doing this if you want? So much easier to just be a dick though, eh? I blame Brexit.

I’m not saying they’re light, I’m certainly not a fanboy, Colnago hold no appeal whatsoever. But I don’t need to have ridden one to know that it is, of course, entirely possible to build one under 16lbs!

Cheers to those who have posted pics of their Colnagos so far, some nice bikes, keep em coming…

Anyway…

Personally think the VR1 looks a bit shit for a Colnago. Looks like an open mould frame.

I’d get a De Rosa or Pinarello or anything else!

Couldn’t disagree more! Despite not having owned one yet, I’m quite the Colnago fan, I think it stems back to Wesley Snipes in White Men Can’t Jump oddly enough! Pinarellos are pig ugly, and though I’m sure an F8/F10 is an impressive ride, I’ve ridden a previous generation Dogma Think 65.1 circa 2012/3 and really wasn’t all that impressed. De Rosa’s don’t do it for me, aside from the fact that some of the cheaper ones are actually open mould frames, the high end stuff gives off a whiff of “trying too hard”. Colnagos by comparison come across as understated cool, the connoiseurs choice. Besides, since the first V1-R I saw, I’ve really wanted one, and the more I look at them, the more I am drawn to them! Helps that the geometry and purpose would suit me much better than more eminently head up, arse down bikes out there.

People put too much emphasis on aero, lightweight etc. But bikes are a package, and the best is what suits the best, for me the C60 is perfection, just wish it wasn’t so expensive.

Agree with the sentiments, though despite the heritage, I’m less drawn to the C60 than the V1-R.

This is lovely.

But this looks like a Canyon..

The steel Colnagos are lovely to look at that is for sure. Aren’t the carbon ones just super stiff race bikes, much like the Pinarello’s and therefore not that suited to your average rider?

I also think that they are now behind the times in terms of frame design and carbon technology, and just trading on their name, but I am not an expert, and certianly don’t want to get in an argument with anyone….

Funnily enough, makes seem to have strongholds in certain countries and with certian generations. It is very rare to see a Pinarello or Colnago here in France (away from Brit hot-spots in the summer). In the UK there are lots of Dogma’s being ridden by your average Jo on the back of Team Sky?

[quoteTo be fair to him, he was the innovator who made plastic bikes mainstream with the C40. [/quote]

I think Giant might have something to say about that one 😉 . CFR anyone? And I’m quite a fan of the C40. Clubmate has a new aero Colnago, and to be honest it looks like an ugly Trek. Steel, however, will never go out of style.

new aero Colnago, and to be honest it looks like an ugly Trek

I guess that’s the point of the C60. Lugs and tubes is unlikely to be the optimal way to fabricate a light stiff carbon frame, where it’s all about putting exactly the right amount of material with the right properties exactly where it’s neeeded, but I guess it’s done because it looks and rides like a Colnago.

If you want the latest most advanced light weight carbon frame then get a top spec Emonda, but you’ll have spent 10 grand on a Trek.

It’s hard to reveiw a C60 without sounding like a fanboy but it’s stiff but comfortable, at least for me. It value for me is in its unique construction method and looks, not a squeezed out of a mold bike, and the ride which is hard to explain if you’ve not ridden one. I’ve not ridden a VR1 but I wasn’t interested in them so didn’t bother. Im not trying to sell anyone a C60, just stating facts as I see them.

Sorry to the OP who just wanted to see pictures of nice looking Colnago’s, and no doubt too, some hideous ones as beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

I think Giant might have something to say about that one

As best I can recall, there had been a few other carbon fibre frames before the C40, but they had not been very successful in races or commercially, and aluminium frames were still the order of the day (and people assumed that the C40 was aluminium when it first appeared being ridden by Tony Rominger).

Giant’s frames of that era were aluminium, and they were the lightest of the bunch.

So it was Colnago that made carbon fibre frames mainstream, certainly in pro racing: the other makers had to follow and develop carbon fibre frames of their own to compete both in the peloton and commercially.

Arguably it was Giant that made them mass market and much more affordable, thanks to their size and ability to bring large economies of scale (and probably low wage costs in the Far East) to bear.

I used to be a semi pro roadie BITD, for a local team.. we rode these.. they were a bit flexible but butterly
smooth and y’now back then they were the absolute best bikes eva.. having sat at the front dragging a team of 6 around the Shropshire Hills and Midlands/Welsh race circuits I’d had enough.. so handed it back.. the owners said “would you like to keep it?” I said Na, I’ve had enough of road bikes to last me a lifetime 😆

Maybe that’s how we differ then, because whilst I was racing road full time we had to ride range topping (very light) carbon Treks, and they were shit.

We snapped 16 of them between us in one season and only one was a crash, the others were JRA’s. Possibly that’s why I don’t like gram chasing now, I remember how bad those bikes were to ride!

Those Treks, bit harsh were they?
I’d given up by then, though fancied them..

These ?

Bit later than that one, 2006 ish Madone 6.9. Just too damn light, like a noodle, didn’t corner very well and cracked as soon as you looked at them.

I guess that’s the point of the C60. Lugs and tubes is unlikely to be the optimal way to fabricate a light stiff carbon frame, where it’s all about putting exactly the right amount of material with the right properties exactly where it’s neeeded, but I guess it’s done because it looks and rides like a Colnago.

It also means you can have a dozen or so sizes without crazy mold costs. When fit can make so much difference some would prioritize that over 150g on a frame. I would.

Anyway, disappointed by the lack of Colnago pics on here 🙂 I have a master X-lite in a box waiting a full build kit, lovely frameset. Summer best sort of bike, to me that’s what a Colnago should be. Won’t be light, won’t care, will ride beautifully and will look slightly OTT-Euro in that art deco paint finish with fluo details.

That De Rosa, has to be a chinese look-a-bit-a-like? Awful 😀

(I wish)

BIG thank you to jameso…

How did this degenerate into posting pictures of Trek’s?!?? Seriously? 😕

So looks like I’m ordering one in Red… White saddle and bar tape anyone? 8)

The C60 I hope 🙂