1976 Colnago Super

I found this frame in Melbourne in early 2000. Just the frame and then started looking for a fork.

The first suitable fork I found was a black Colnago Prescia fork. It was black with some airbrushing on the sides, some of which was yellow, so it looked pretty good, the only problem was that the steerer had been cut too short. A bit disappointing.

I collected a few more options, but nothing really felt right, so the bike didn’t progress. A couple of years ago I was looking for another fork for an early 1990s Colnago Master X Light and when I hit up my usual Colnago parts supplier, he mentioned that he had NOS (New Old Stock) Colnago steel fork, with a 1″ steerer, which he sent out to me. Turned out that wasn’t quite what I needed for the master, but perfect for this old Super – maybe a little newer than the frame, but the right style and close enough if I didn’t want to wait another 20 years!

By then the parts collection had been going on for a while, although not with much urgency. I had collected a couple of nice pairs of Alessa alloy rims when I was looking for wheels for another Colnago Super, so I laced a pair of those to some Campagnolo Record hubs with double butted DT Swiss spokes and Vittoria tyres and tubes – we went for the Zaffiro Pro 25c as our local Vintage Steel rides have a bit of a thing for gravel (Strade Bianche dreamers).

I already had a Campagnolo Record seatpost and a vintage Concor saddle with yellow printing that matched the frame as well a very nice 3T Record stem. Si then the hunt started in earnest. First stop, Petey Nibia Mac of Retro Cycling Marketplace fame; initially he only had the downtube shifters and brake calipers, so I snapped those up. Then a little while later he came up with a fabulous Ofmega Colnago pantographed crankset that I just couldn’t resist. The derailleurs and a 3T handlebar followed soon after, but it took quite a while to find a nice pair of brake levers. But, when I eventually found those, they were perfect, drillium, NOS, with yellow infill in the drilled holes and brand new rubber hoods.

Well, I put all that together and wrapped the bars with some Newbaums cushioned cloth bar tape with cork bar ends and hemp twine binding – where today we would use electrical tape. Then popped on some pedals and want for a roll – very nice, but too small! I’d known that all along and had in the back of my mind a very good friend, who rode a lot, had quite a few bikes, but not a steel bike and not something he could bring on a vintage bike ride.

Well, he does now 🙂

I really like this one, all the detailed touches just make it a bit more special than most.

Colnago History & Links

Ernesto Colnago opened his first shop in 1954 in Cambiago, Italy. He’d been a promising young rider, but a bad crash shortened that career and he went back to working in bike shops eventually opening his own. He became a highly skilled mechanic and was much sought after by professional teams to maintain and later build their bikes, eventually founding his own brand, Colnago.