hi steven,
i believe that my former oval cx, which was identical to this frame, was an early 80's bike. the super rear derailleur was marked 1982. the oval cx is certainly one of the early aero bikes from the 80's, but not the earliest. it is my understanding that ernesto was motivated to build it after cinelli released the laser models. but don't tell him i said so ;) my cinelli laser's super record rear derailleur is stamped 1981, with serial #024. i believe the lasers were the earliest of the 80's aero bikes. and they are definitely the epitome of that design trend.
you can see photos of a complete and almost totally original oval cx - the only change i made was the saddle. the original saddle was a concor profil, which was nice saddle (and aerodynamic too!), but the soffati i replaced it with was just too perfect for the bike. here's the link to the oval cx photos:
http://www.raydobbins.com/
btw, the correct link to the oval cx frame on italian ebay is:
ray dobbins miami florida
The Maaslands <TheMaaslands@comcast.net> wrote:
On Italian ebay there is a Colnago Oval CX frameset:
http://ebay.com/
Can anybody determine the exact year of production of this frame? When I called Ernesto on Thursday to wish him happy birthday, he said that it was from the 80's, about 20 years old. Was this one fo the first aero bikes from the early 80's or did it come later?
Steven Maasland
Moorestown, NJ