Fw: [CR]On Colnago (and others) dating (warning - long)

(Example: Component Manufacturers)

Date: Fri, 10 Jan 2003 08:40:25 -0500
From: "The Maaslands" <TheMaaslands@comcast.net>
Subject: Fw: [CR]On Colnago (and others) dating (warning - long)
To: Classic Rendezvous <Classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>


Johan wrote:

I might be out on thin ice here and I hope that my english is good enough to get you all to understand my point.

Being a fan of 70: ies and early 80:ies Colnagos I read all texts and look at all pics I find on these.

Some thoughts arise whilst doing this.

A lot of time is spent in different forums on discussing what year a certain bike is from. Some people have strong opinions and some are more "easy going". I see two focuses - telling 1971, -72 and maybe -73 apart and 1979 to -83 apart.

(big snip)...

Someone can argue that these were special orders and of course they could pick what they wanted. My theory, though, is that the "mix" applies to production frames too. What the frames looked like in the end all depended on a lot of things. Supply, if the sun shone, if the wife was in a good mood, etc, etc. -----------------------------------------------------

Johan brings up a point that I have also already brought up in the past. It seems that in the US, most top end bikes were sold as 'ready-made' whole bikes, therefore with one particular set of components with only few options. It has been my observation that this was not at all the case in many other countries around the world. Without going directly to the framebuilder as mentioned by Johan, it was often possible to buy a naked frame and build it up yourself with whatever parts that you wanted. This was most definitely the case from the 1960's onwards, so I would agree with johan's comment about it not being correct to speak of 'the' proper equipment, but rather one version thereof. Like Lou has stated previously, in my books as long as it is period correct, I am happy. In fact I believe that anything within 2-3 years on either side of the frame production date should be acceptable.

I base my comments on what I have seen at van Herwerden in Voorburg (one of the top shops anywhere in the world if you are ever travelling through the Netherlands!), at the different shops that I worked at in Canada (including the original Mariposa shop: Bicyclesport in Toronto), at Radsport Wetzel in Frankfurt Germany (previously one of the main importers of De Rosa, Gios and other noteworthy frames) and any number of shops in Italy.

Steven Maasland Moorestown, NJ

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