Colnago Mexico - Is this a fair price? opinions appreciated

[andy---doe]

Re: Colnago Mexico - Is this a fair price? opinions apprecia

colnagolover
You have worried me slightly about the Columbas sticker (which is why I have posted here - thank you)
Whats more I would be buying the bike 'blind' as it's in Austria - so I'm working off photos and taking the word of the seller, that it's original paint etc etc.
I doubt the seller will reduce the price any further as it started off at £1350 and the price I can purchase at (£1150) includes shipping and insurance.

 

[originalshinkicker]

Re: Colnago Mexico - Is this a fair price? opinions apprecia

If that is a respray then the seller has gone to a lot of trouble and expense. Chrome masking, 2 colour fades and stencils to create the patterns wouldn't be cheap. If it is a respray then don't forget, resprays aren't just done to mask or correct an issue. They are often done by careful owners who just want their bike to remain looking like new.

Are Colnago Columbus transfers varnished/clear coated over? Many manufacturers don't and they simply come off. Loads of old 70s/80s frames have missing or disappearing Reynolds stickers.

Buying a second hand bike is a risk but you have to do as much research as possible. I bought a resprayed 753 Raleigh and had to check out weights, tube diameters, seatpin sizes etc to confirm that it was what it was.

 

[Deleted member 24574]

Re: Colnago Mexico - Is this a fair price? opinions apprecia

I doubt that is a respray ... Would be very expensive to do.

Probably just the decal flaked off.

 

[colnagolover]

Re: Colnago Mexico - Is this a fair price? opinions apprecia

OK, if shipping and insurance are included, then you're not doing too bad

I think you should ask the seller why the Columbus (not Columbas ) decal is missing and see if he has a plausible explanation: if it is the original paint and it is in as good nick as it looks, then it is not a plausible excuse that the decal has worn off!!

I hate to set a damper on things but I can think of no good reason why the decal should be missing, unless it is a respray and the resprayer could not source the correct Columbus decal (I have just delivered my bike for a respray and a rechrome here in Denmark and the paintshop is having exactly that problem - finding the correct Columbus sticker).

If there are no other problems than the sticker and everything else about the bike is OK, then I'm pretty sure you'll be getting a very good ride - my 87 bike is a cheaper model than the Mexico and I've done over 100,000 kilometres on it since 1988 (with a 10 year break in the middle) and I've enjoyed at least 99% of them and I love my bike (wish I could afford another one!)

Check it out and go for it - - if you can't get an explanation you're happy with, push for a further discount.

Colnagolover

 

[andy---doe]

Re: Colnago Mexico - Is this a fair price? opinions apprecia

I had no idea a sticker was ever there - so thanks everybody. I will see if he has an answer.

I have managed to put a couple more pictures on flickr and noticed a bit of corrosion/flaking above the collar where the frame meets the fork

Montello - your bike looks amazing

 

[originalshinkicker]

Re: Colnago Mexico - Is this a fair price? opinions apprecia

What's the hang up with a Columbus decal? It simply doesn't mean a respray? I've just hit eBay... searched Colnago... guess what, first 3 bikes selected had no tubing decal... does that mean they are all resprays or there is a dodgy story why one isn't present?

Don't let the absence of a decal that may or may not have been there, put you off. The extra images you put up confirm it is a good clean used Colnago.

 

[torqueless]

Re: Colnago Mexico - Is this a fair price? opinions apprecia

All excellent advice above..I'm not going to pretend to have much knowledge of Colnagos, or any idea of their market value- my opinion, since you expressed a desire for it on the other thread:

Just as that magenta'n'gold Mercier was in France in the mid '70s, this Colnago, if it's ship-shape and kosher, is just about the nicest steel road bike you could hope to have in the mid '80s in Italy, and because Italy, everywhere else, too. The only problem with Colnagos is their notoriety and prominence in the market. Everyone knows the name, and the fact that half the peloton have been on them since the '70s. For that reason they are a bit like Stradivari violins, difficult to fake successfully, but potentially lucrative if they can be faked, but then successful fakes are often of necessity indistinguishable in quality from the genuine article anyway. I'm not suggesting this is a fake, just sayin'.

It might be instructive to dig up the old thread, started IIRC by Montello, titled something like: "What's your top three Italian marques?" in which all the conoisseurs of Italia had their say. As Cycletothesea said, with Colnago you pay a premium for the name. There are plenty of other fine Italian framebuilders, including small builders who you would never expect to hear of outside Italy, some of whom perhaps once worked for Colnago.

Anyway, on the photographic evidence, this Colnago looks good. Up to you to decide if it's one-grand-plus good. I guess try to get it in writing that the frame is true, the threads are good, the seat post and/or stem ain't stuck, stuff like that. OTOH don't expect time-warp factory-fresh perfection, unless you are prepared to pay a premium for that, too. A bike with zero cosmetic flaws is not necessarily a good bike- possibly quite the opposite.

 

[cycletothesea]

Re: Colnago Mexico - Is this a fair price? opinions apprecia

Or you could offer £1,000 for this: LOL!
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Vintage-Bicyc ... 27dfecb469
Gotta love somebody with a bit of optimism haven't you.

 

[andy---doe]

Re: Colnago Mexico - Is this a fair price? opinions apprecia

Or you could offer £1,000 for this: LOL!
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Vintage-Bicyc ... 27dfecb469
Gotta love somebody with a bit of optimism haven't you.

Blimey!
Even with my very limited knowledge......

 

[colnagolover]

Re: Colnago Mexico - Is this a fair price? opinions apprecia

What's the hang up with a Columbus decal? It simply doesn't mean a respray? I've just hit eBay... searched Colnago... guess what, first 3 bikes selected had no tubing decal... does that mean they are all resprays or there is a dodgy story why one isn't present?

Don't let the absence of a decal that may or may not have been there, put you off. The extra images you put up confirm it is a good clean used Colnago.

The "hang up" is quite simply that if it is the original paintwork, the decal authenticates the fact that it is a frame made with the prescribed tubing - and although it certainly looks to be a genuine Colnago (viz. the pantographed seatstays and the pantographed lugs), the absence of the decal could just as well mean that it is a good copy but could also just as well be made with plumber's tubing!!

The absence of thge tube manufacturer's decal would - in my view - indicate that there is an 80% chance that it is a respray and there is not necessarily anything wróng with that but when you're buying from a guy you don't know, can't meet and on the basis of a few photographs, caution is never to be sneered at.....

Colnagolover