In a message dated 10/16/00 7:36:39 AM Eastern Daylight Time, jpdimauro@starpower.net writes:
<< I meant to say that there were some called the "Mexico" that were of questionable quality. I guess some of the "Supers" were also poorly made. I wonder why they varied so much? >>
I think that in the late 1970s and early 1980s, Ernesto Colnago's genius for marketing and sales pushed him to farm out a lot of production and some was shoddy.
I think that the Super was the model most likely to be loose in quality. Those came in the USA in droves to the mail order houses and to any start-up importer with money. This is the same time frame in which serial numbers were not even used ... De la Rosa and Kolin referred to this "farming out" situation by Colnago in the preface of The Custom Bicycle Book, using that as a reason to eliminate him from the book.
Genuine "Mexico" models, alleged to be made of super light Columbus "Record" (straight gauge!) and "KL" (butted), were most likely built in Ernesto's workshop. These "real" Mexico bikes were usually very good. Also confusing this issue was Colnago's tendency to slap decals on any Colnago with references to the Mexico Hour Record. It is sometimes tough to know which model Colnago you actually have.
I would bet Marc Boral knows a lot about this. What do you say, Marc......?
Dale Brown