89-91 Colnago Master

ededwards

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Again, posted before but immodestly I'm putting it up again!

1989-91 (best estimate) Colnago Master with Art Decor paint and those wonderful, weird 'gilco' tubes
Nuovo Record groupset
Campag ti seatpost
Interesting textured Rolls saddle

As before, detail is all and look at all those 'Ace of Clubs'!

Rides like the wind (well, with a following wind anyway).
 

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Colnago

Ed there is no need to be modest owning this and the Merckx.
Another stunning machine!
I like the colour and know what you mean about the detail. When you see them in person, from build quality to paintwork you can see where the high cost is justified.

Jamie
 
Re: master

juiceboxx":1htqvlb1 said:
nice ride. the shifters look a little bit off. maybe they should be swapped out for campy?? ;)

I know what you mean about the Simplex shifters not matching however they were commonly speced with Campag groupsets of that era so pretty much in keeping (although I do have some spare Nuovo Record ones).
 
A few things about this bike indicate it is not from 1984.

1) The paint. Art Deco paint like this was dates it from the early to mid 90's. That's when purple was the "in" colour to be riding too. Ask anyone who had a bike kitted out with all that purple anodised componentry that still floats around Ebay to this day.

2) Internal brake cable routing was not a feature of the Master before 1987,and then it took a few years to become a standard feature on the Master. It was first used on the MasterPiu.

3) In 1984, there were no bosses for bottle cages on the seat tube. Again this is a late 80s innovation. My Colnago Super from 1992 has no bottle cages, although they were an option a couple of years earlier for the Master.

I would date this bike at somewhere around 1992 or 1993. Another clue would come from the rear spacing, but it is too easy to respace an old bike for this to have any significant bearing.

(Note: All the above comments are on the assumption that the bike is in fact a Master. It is not clear whether the bike actually has Gilco tubing and therefore there is a possibility that it is another model. The tubing sticker on the Master can help date a bike too, with the most common one saying "Gilco S4".)

Hope this helps.
 
Interesting stuff which sounds very plausible. I estimated the date mainly via the fork and groupset so wonder:

- if 1992/93 why are the forks curved not the straight Prescia fork which I understand was introduced in 1985 or 1986?

- if 1992/93 wonder why the original owner built with Nuovo Record rather than C record or something nearer the age of the frame? Perhaps going with the 'new frame but old parts approach'?

Any thoughts?

Please understand that I'm not saying it's not an early 90s frame, to be honest not really worried either way, but wonder if it is possible to date with more certainty - do frame numbers help?
 
The Colnago website states that the Precisa (straight blade) fork was created in 1987. It was not available as an option to the consumer until 1989. (The 1988 catalogue does not have one image of a straight steel fork).

Even when the Precisa fork was available as an option, it was initially slightly more expensive, and many buyers chose to get a conventional fork rather than a Precisa. I recall listening to Paul Sherwin in the early 90s when these forks started appearing on several team bikes in the TDF. He was speculating that the high number of crashes was possibly down to the straght forks making the bikes less stable. Not surprisingly, it takes time for cyclists to change their ways, and this sort of thing doesn't help...

Old habits die hard with cyclists, as many on this website will attest. We prefer the nostalgia of a traditional bike over the newfangled gimmicks. The Master is still made today with the option of a curved fork, despite the availability of lighter stiffer materials.

Assuming that the parts on the bike are the same parts originally used to build up the bike, one only has to look at what I wrote in the paragraph above to answer the question of why the original owner chose to build his bike up with Nuovo Record instead of C-Record. C-Record was developed in 1983, but Super Record was still produced by the Campag factory until 1987, and continued to be sold for a few more years in shops until supplies dried up.
 
Another great bike from the Edward's stable. Colnago's like this always look good, my favourites.
 
Thanks Toff, some great stuff again but I still have more questions!

Definitely a Master with gilco tubing as these photos show a bit better. So a Master but which iteration and which year?

I'll check but I don't think the top tube cable routing is internal, I seem to recall it being along the non driveside of the top tube. The cable routing is under the b/b though which makes it post 1981 although that is hardly a revelation.

Could it be a respray? Possibly although it seems very good quality so I wonder why someone would go to all the time and expense? Can't rule it out though.

Bottom line is that it is a Colnago though as surely no one could be bothered to fake all those tube profiles and cutouts? I reckon I should just ride and enjoy but it's always nice to have a definitive age.
 

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And my confusion continues!

I followed Toff's posted elsewhere link to Sheldon Brown's 'valuation' of road bikes (top read incidentally) but this has only compounded my bewilderment. My frame has a chrome lug at the headtube but a plainer non-chromed lug at the seatstay end. I hadn't spotted this before but it does strike me as a little odd, especially when the rear end is half chrome. Oh and mine has no tubing sticker, gilco or otherwise - again, pointing to the possibility of a respray?

Where on earth does this leave me? Should it matter? Not really but I guess it would be nice to get to the bottom of this. Anyone know for sure?
 

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