Re: [Classicrendezvous] Mexico vs Super (was: Colnago quality)

(Example: Racing:Wayne Stetina)

Date: Mon, 16 Oct 2000 15:14:21 -0400
From: Jerry Moos <moos@penn.com>
To: Marc Boral <mbikealive@earthlink.net>
CC: OROBOYZ@aol.com, Classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
Subject: Re: [Classicrendezvous] Mexico vs Super (was: Colnago quality)
References: <9f.bf42632.271c5c72@aol.com> <39EB3714.2EDB3A32@earthlink.net>


While we're on the topic of rare tubesets, there is a Reynolds set that has me puzzled. I just bought Dave Martinez' circa 1970 Zeus road bike with a full Zeus gruppo, mostly Criterium, which for those unfamiliar with Zeus, is equivalent to Campy NR . The bike has a Reynolds decal I have never seen before. The decal has yellow lettering on a black background and says (in English): 'A' Quality - Butted - Reynolds Frame Tubes Forks and Stays. The word "Reynolds" is larger than the rest, running diagonally from lower left to upper right. The other words are smaller and horizonal. Neither the numerals "531" nor any other numerals appear on the decal, nor do the words "Guaranteed Built With", which normally appear on the 531 decals.

Neither Dave nor I had ever heard of Reynolds " 'A' Quality " tubing before nor seen such a decal. I have no clue what BUTTED tubing other than 531 Reynolds would have been making in 1970. If it tells anyone anything, the seatpost is 26.2. The frame has Zeus pro quality forged dropouts, lined long point lugs, concave seatstay caps, a metal headbadge and a slopping fork crown similar but not identical to Cinelli. In short, the frame details seem to indicate a pro quality frame (no chrome however). Anyone have any idea about this tubeset? Could it be just another unusual 531 decal, like the special ones made for Schwinn and a few English custom builders? Or is it really a completely different butted tubeset?

Regards,

Jerry Moos

Marc Boral wrote:
> Hi Dale and CR,
>
> Most of my knowledge about earlier Colnagos comes from older Colnago literature,
> but some comes from having 25-30 Colnagos in my collection :-). So assuming the
> literature is correct, here is little info about Mexico vs. Super.
>
> Mexico framesets first appeared in '75/'76. They were constructed of Columbus
> Record & SL tubing. My early catalog refers to "4/10 Record". This refers to
> the 10 tubes used to make a frameset, not including the steerer. I assume it
> means that four tubes are Record, and the rest are SL. The problem is that the
> catalog doesn't refer to which tubes are the Record tubes. Columbus catalogs
> spec the Record tube set to have all different tubes from the SL set, except for
> the fork blades, those are the same 0.9 mm. So this means that there can
> potentially be eight Record tubes in a frame. Did Colnago use four Record tubes
> to make up the main triangle/head, or was Record used for all the stays? I don't
> know. I do know that many people complain about the whippiness of Mexico frames
> in larger sizes. But that is the sacrifice one must expect from using ultra
> light tubing. Columbus intended Record tubing to used in record attempts on the
> track, not in a road bike. By the way, here are the weights of a complete Record
> tubeset (1650 gr.) and complete SL tubeset (2065 gr.) On a personal note, one of
> reasons I love to collect Colnagos is because Ernesto put out so many different
> professional models, primarily in the '80s.