Colnagophilia

I love bicycles. I love Colnago bicycles more than I probably should. I think it's called Colnagophilia. It sounds like a dirty word and I guess to a certain extent it is a little grubby. I love them for all the reasons everyone else does, or at least should, love Colnago: heritage, history, craftsmanship, artistry and the chubby smiling face of Sig. Ernesto Colnago. It helps that the first bike I really remember was a Colnago Ibex and I can't remember a time since then when I didn't have at least one in my possession.

With this background in mind, about 6 years ago, when I glimpsed a full page advert in a scrubby Italian bicycle magazine from 1988 (I think it was an old copy of Bicisport) the glimpse rapidly turned to a stare. I thought I had a pretty good knowledge of old Colnago bikes and I certainly knew a little about the Colnago-Ferrari collaboration that was the C35. I knew the C35 had modern straight forks and I also knew it hadn't even been born in 1988. I remember thinking "WTF is that bike?" - except in longhand because no one says "WTF" in their head, do they?

From my little Italian* I gathered that "Here it is! the Carbon-Volo Colnago". I could also imagine Ernesto telling me in no uncertain terms that this bike was "Light. Strong. Pretty. In fact...as beautiful as can be!"

I chuckled a little when I saw such beauty would cost almost 4 million Lira when dressed with full Campagnolo C-Record  jewellery. Luckily for those 1980s Colnagophiles, tax was included.

That was about 6 years ago and in a way it marked the beginning of this blog.

*not a small Italian person that I own btw.