Dane brought in this little beauty for a quick tune-up. He was only back in town for a few months and needed something to ride to the pub and check out the surf in Byron Bay.
But, she’d been badly neglected. The frame had been damaged and inexpertly repaired and almost all of the components needed work and some replacing. It was going to be a bigger job than Dane really wanted to get into. It also seemed like the sad and slow demise of an icon. So we did a deal. Dane got a new Specialized Sirrus X for boosting around Byron and I got a C40 in bad need of some loving.
Identified as the 2nd version of the C40, 1997. Gear cable stops on the headtube lug are pretty much the defining feature of this version.
I stripped off the groupset and mismatched wheels, etc., so I could have a good look at the state she was in and decided, “Really, there’s only one thing for it,” and got hold of Gary at Carbon Steed. He was like, “The best thing to do would be strip it back and redo all the decals and then clear coat and we can fix the dodgy seat stay repair and replace all the cable stops at the same time and it’ll be a new bike.” Pretty much what I was thinking, but needed to hear it from him.
Well I dropped it up to him while I was picking up another repair and also left him with Adam’s C50, but that’s another story
A few weeks later ….
It looks amazing!
But, I am still undecided on the rebuild.
When I received the frame, it was running Shimano Dura Ace 7800. A great groupset, but the shifters don’t age well Frequently, the inside lever doesn’t release the gear mechanism, sometimes cleaning helps, sometimes nothing helps. There was also quite a lot of cosmetic issues with the groupset, so I was open to ideas there.
The original red rims were pretty appealing, the front was a Mavic CXP23, but the rear had been replaced with something I didn’t recognise. I think I’d prefer Mavic Helium to the CXP23s, it will depend what I can lay my hands on.
I have been pondering this for a bit and I do have a 10 speed Campagnolo Record groupset in, allegedly, excellent condition that I scored off my brother after he stripped and sold his Gios Pro. I’ll bust that out and have a look at it.
It looks like the gruppo is in pretty good condition. I’d say the seatpost is a bit short, but I do have another longer one the same. The saddle is also looking a bit scruffy – not sure what I’ll do about that. Also, the crankset is 170mm – I usually ride 175mm. I think I’ll build it and ride it and see what I think about the shorter crank length and maybe I’ll have to source another, longer crankset.
I also picked up a new-old-stock (NOS) Campagnolo 1″ threadless headset. I guess now all I need to to is start building!
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.
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