Colnago Bikes, Road Bikes and Frames, New and Used

Colnago was founded in Cambiago, Italy, not far from Milano, by Ernesto Colnago. The company started in 1954, and had a short ride to fame. After all, by 1960, Luigi Arienti was riding a bicycle made by Colnago to the gold at the 1960 Olympics in Rome. Colnago was regarded as one of the best manufacturers of incredibly high quality custom frames for road racing from this point, and up through the 1970s. Read more about Colnago below...

More About Colnago Racing Bicycles - An Italian Classic

After all, it was this company that was responsible for the bike Eddy Merckx used in 1972, when he broke the world one hour record. This bike is still around, and has been displayed in locations all over the world. It even spent some time on display in a protective case located in a metro station in Brussels. In 1982, Saronni rode a steel framed bike from this company. Its Columbus tubed steel construction helped to win the world professional road race championship.

Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Colnago's high end racing frame was the Super. This excellent model was ridden in many races. Later in the decade of the 1980s, the company introduced a number of crimp tube models, too. These top of the range frames included the Master design, as well as the Master-light. The composition of these frames varied throughout their era of production, ranging from the original Columbus tubing to a material called Ultimate Superlight (made in Japan).

The Precisa bicycle fork was also introduced in the middle of the 1980s, and was the first straight bladed front fork. The special crown shape allowed this new fork to maintain the normal four degree fork rake for road racing bikes, but also allowed some other benefits. According to Colnago, the straight bladed front fork had much more lengthwise elasticity than a curved fork, but more stiffness in the crosswise direction.

That allowed it to cut down on shocks from rough roads while offering more stability and stiffness for a sprint. This was one of the lightest full steel works - lighter even than some of the lower cost carbon or aluminum forks of the time. A lot of bicycle manufacturers have followed in Colnago's footsteps, too. Many modern forks use straight blades, particularly carbon forks. Columbus, the major manufacturer of bicycle tubing, also marketed the same fork as the Elite. However, the Colnago Precisa was the exact same part.

Since the 1970s, Colnago has sponsored one or more professional teams per year, including the award winning Molteni team in the 1970s, the Mapei Professional Cycling Team in the 1990s, and the Rabobank team in 2005. They also sponsored the Navigators - an American domestic team - in 2005. In 2006, Colnago added Team Milram to their list of sponsored teams, as well as the Landbouwkrediet-Colnago professional team - a competitor in the UCI Europe Tour. Colnago was Team Tinkoff's official frame supplier, as well, and has sponsored a number of other teams over the years.

Current production includes the Extreme C and Extreme Power carbon fiber specialty climbing frames, the President and President Leonardo da Vinci (LdV special edition) in carbon fiber, the Brerart, C50s Pista, Chrono, and regular, also on carbon fiber, and the Cristallo, with special seat stays to provide better braking power. The E-1 is another carbon fiber bike made by Colnago. Their aluminum and aluminum and carbon frames include the Dream, Active, Rapid, Mix and Strada SC. The CT2 is a combination titanium and carbon frame, and the Master X Light is one of the last remaining steel frame models.

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