Hi Mark of Down Under and CR listees, I think Colnago's that have been repainted,make it more difficult to gauge an exact date. In all things Colnago in my opinion there is some grey area in regards to coming up with a frame date. I would be very happy to own your "yellow repainted" road warrior Colnago. The original paint and graphics would certainly be most educational to have seen. In my opinion you have one of the very early Colnago Super framesets based on the fork cutouts in the fork crown and the THREE CLOVER (spade) cutouts in the three main frame lugs.The three cutouts and the four small hole on the corners of the fork crown are the tip offs to an early Colnago Super, (i.e. 1969,1970,maybe 1971). Once the orginal graphics and paint are gone it's anybody's guess as to what other braze ons are original. Normally an early Colnago Super would NOT have down tube shifter braze ons or water bottle braze ons. But since the YELLOW Colnago is a repaint,I would think, it would have been a normal "upgrade" back when to have added down tube braze ons and at least one pair of water bottle braze ons. It appears the bicycle has clamp on cable guides at the top of the bottom bracket. ONE PHOTO THAT WOULD help ID the frameset would be a picture of the lower side of the BOTTOM BRACKET to see what the cut outs look like. Also a close up photo of the inside of the front fork tangs would help id the frame's age. Mark with a first class paint job and some chrome work on the front fork crown you will have one of the "HOLY GRAIL" of the vintage lightweight classic racing bicycles.
Michael Kone did a lengthy article many years back on the early Colnago Supers,detailing what is to be found on an early Colnago. Mike featured this article in his Monthly newletter,"Bicycle Classics".
Eric Elman started to compile a list of what features are to be found on what year Colnago's.
Chuck Schmidt followed up on Eric's idea and started to list the Colnago futures on his website.........Chuck are you still out there........come back......... I would've loved to have been at Chuck's "Velo Retro" event titled "Velo Rendezvous 7 I hear the plan was to have a time line of COLNAGO's lined up from earliest to the latest. Looking at Chuck's Velo Retro website I do NOT see any photo's posted from the September 2007 gathering. I would think a close examination of the bicycles that would have been on display at the Velo Rendezvous 7 would have provided a great education on comparing the graphics and features found on early Colnago Supers. One of these years I hope to make it out to California for the Velo Rendezvous!
Mark please let us know if you post additional high resolution photo's of you old Colnago Super,showing bottom bracket and fork tangs. Congratulations on a great find. Everyone says they ride great!
I lucked out and found an early Colnago Super this past May,just befor Cirque X,in 2007. It's been repainted and had braze ons added,so I can sympathize with you,about not having an original condition Super. But it fits me well and it is a great looking and riding bicycle. I'm still trying to figure out when and how to restore it to it's original glory. My fork crown is not chromed. I've heard they came chromed and also painted. I recently had a chance to see the small blue, Colnago Super that Michael Kone,once owned and based his well written article on. The article was written, about ten years ago for his monthly newletter for his old venture called Bicycle Classics back in the 1990's.The original paint and graphics on the earliest Colnago Supers are one of my favorite lightweight classic bicycles.Trying to match the correct graphics with the correct year Colnago Super will take a good bit of research. As seen by the responses of the folks on the CR list so far,people are giving you a ten year time, span of how old you Colnago Super is. You will find that there are many nuances to "how old" your particular "marque" is. My theory is that it,is not engraved in stone,and there are probably anomolies is trying to pin down an exact date on these "vintage bicycles".
Congratulations on your vintage Colnago Super! I think you got real lucky on your find! It will be a long time before you'll come across another of that vintage,down under,or even stateside,so far I've managed to find two of these lovely classic steel bicycles.
I'm looking forward to hearing what Brother Brian Baylis has to say on the subject!!!
Happy Holidays to all! Yours truly, Marty Walsh in Vienna,Virginia close to CIRQUE XI which is just around the corner,U.S.A.
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