Colnago Master

thegreatdivide

My new addition. I love her...a lot!













Frame: Colnago Master
Forks: Precisa Steel
Bars: Cinelli Giro d'Italia 64 (40cm c-c)
Stem: Velo Orange
Headset: Chris King Nothread
Bar Tape: BBB Speed Ribbon
Cage: Elite Ciussi Inox

Seat: San Marco Regal
Seat Post: Nitto S65 Alloy 27.2mm

Groupset: Campagnolo Athena 11-Speed
Cranks: 170mm
Chainring(s): Double
Cassette: 11-25
Pedals: Exustar EPR-201
Bottom Bracket: Campagnolo Power Torque Italian Thread

Rims: Mavic Open Pro CD
Spokes: Can't remember
Hubs: Ambrosio Zenith
Tubes: Michelin Aircomp Latex
Tyres: Veloflex Master 22mm

MattC59

Veeeerrrry Nice !!!!!
8)

How's that saddle ? So far I love the Regel-e that's on my Enigma. It's the same shape as the Regal on your Master, and so far I've found it to be amazingly comfortable. There's hardly amy padding, but the shape seems to be fantastic.

notlongnow

snazzy

ALaPlage

Oh my, oh my. That's one sweet little Lady

thegreatdivide

MattC59 wrote:

How's that saddle ?

I've got Regal-E's on my other two bikes and I find it a very, very comfortable saddle indeed. You're right about the padding vs. shape. Not much there but my ar$e loves it :-) I didn't want to put a Regal-E on this bike, it had to be a straight up classic Regal, but they're pretty much the same in comfort terms.

gabriel959

Wozzers!!! Super nice bike!

snowy lowey

Stunning!

PhilPub

Ah, a proper bike!

That's beautiful. I'm slowly getting used to the aesthetics of the A-head stem compared to quill, but that one looks fairly discreet along with the milky finish of the Cinelli bars. A very nicely balanced compromise between old school looks and modern performance all round.

thegreatdivide

Cheers folks.

I could have gone down the quill route and had the steerer threaded but to get my fit specs it needed to be an A-head stem. I tried three stems and various bars before settling on these. The Velo Orange stem is shaped very much like the Master frame and I think they compliment each other really well. I was going to go with Deda's Speciale bars in polished silver but when I saw the Giro's it was a done deal.

seven7faces

My lottery win is going on one of these. Beautiful bike, enjoy.

thegreatdivide

You don’t need a lottery win to own one of these. You just need to be lucky on your sourcing of components. This bike was built from two bikes...

The Colnago Master was purchased via eBay. It was less than 12 months old and came fully loaded with almost split new Dura Ace 7800 inc pedals, Cinelli Ram 2 bars, Mavic Ksyrium Equipe wheels, Prologo saddle and a bunch of other high end parts. I managed to bag it for £1350!

The Athena groupset came from a Cinelli Experience I found in Cash Converters. I think it's from 2011 and apart from a few tiny dings it was shiny and silver. I bought the bike for...£440.

I picked up the wheels, unused, for £160 on eBay.

The rest of the parts were sourced online and bought using discount codes so no full RRP.

Now I have a full Dura Ace 7800 groupset in cracking condition, a Cinelli Experience bike frame/bars/stem/seatpost/saddle, wheels (Campagnolo Vento), Prologo saddle, Cinelli Ram 2 bars and a whole bunch of smaller items like a Ti bottle cage and 2 computers to sell. This means once I’ve shifted that lot the total build for the bike should come in at about £1500.

RideOnTime

nice one...
8)

Velonutter

I love the Saroni Red Master Frames, stunning, luverly job :-)

Hutch123

Brilliant deal on the bike when you originally got it! The frames alone are £1800!

ukracer

Very nice!

But please redo bar tape. :roll:

thegreatdivide

What's wrong with the bar tape? The finishing electrical tape could be a tad neater but there's nothing wrong with the wrapping thank you very much!

mamba80

Gorgeous! some thing about a steel bike a carbon can never quite match it

nathancom

stunning bike

PhilPub

ukracer wrote:

But please redo bar tape. :roll:

That's a pretty serious case of bar finishing tape OCD you've got there.

thegreatdivide

Hehe. I think it was a dig at the black saddle white tape combo tbh. This build is a bit of a modern tribute to Beppe Saronni's classic world champ bike and the black saddle/white tape is the 'classic' Team Leader colour combination (not that I'm a team leader ;-)).

Here's the real deal http://www.tindonkey.com/2011/06/herd-o ... super.html

rolf_f

thegreatdivide wrote:

Hehe. I think it was a dig at the black saddle white tape combo tbh.

Oooh noooo, he's breaking the rules

Only think I'm not sure about are the transparent Hudz. It would look great if they were opaque but it looks a bit messy over the black plastic to my eyes. And I'd raise the bars....

jordan_217

That's beautiful. What's it like to ride?

thegreatdivide

Cheers.

I went out for a proper ride on Friday after work and it was ridiculously comfortable! When I got back into cycling I started out on an aluminium Allez then graduated up to carbon with a Wilier Izoard and a Cento Uno. While the latter is an incredible bike that I can ride for 100+ miles in a single sitting I can see me doing a Forest Gump on the Master – steel is smoooooooth! 8) The Regal saddle and latex tubes with quality rubber make it a sublime road experience. This is going to be a bike for life.

Oh and it takes corners superbly too.

PhilPub

I've been on a similar journey, rediscovering steel after many years. I'd effectively replaced my old bike with a carbon one a few years ago, as bits started getting old and, I thought, obsolete. Having renovated it this year with a modern gruppo (SRAM Force) and new wheels, it's sooo much more comfortable to ride than the carbon.

Incidentally I went with white/white on saddle/bars in the end, but only after swapping a black saddle onto my other bike. Black saddle/white bars was pretty standard BITD wasn't it. (Sorry, do you mind?...)

thegreatdivide

Not at all mate. That's a great looking bike! :-) Lovely colours.

What Challenge tyres are you running on it?

Don't think I'm ready to give up carbon yet as my other two bikes serve a purpose and serve it well, but the Master is going to bring me so much pleasure.

thegreatdivide

And I see you're having the same speaker cable issues as me :-)

PhilPub

thegreatdivide wrote:

And I see your having the same speaker cable issues as me :-)

Ha! My life is a constant struggle between function and form.

The tyres are Challenge Forte, which were purchased in preference to any other Challenge "open tubulars" (such as Criterium) because Planet X had them on special offer. As it happens, the more aggressive tread pattern has a nice old-school look about it, so along with the gumwalls and red/blue logo they're just about perfect.

This is very much my sunny day special, so the carbon will still get more use, especially if there's any HINT of moisture on the roads!

jordan_217

thegreatdivide wrote:

Cheers.

I went out for a proper ride on Friday after work and it was ridiculously comfortable! When I got back into cycling I started out on an aluminium Allez then graduated up to carbon with a Wilier Izoard and a Cento Uno. While the latter is an incredible bike that I can ride for 100+ miles in a single sitting I can see me doing a Forest Gump on the Master – steel is smoooooooth! 8) The Regal saddle and latex tubes with quality rubber make it a sublime road experience. This is going to be a bike for life.

Oh and it takes corners superbly too.

I've always fancied chucking my leg over a steel Colnago - just to see what they are like. One day, maybe. Glad your enjoying the bike. Long may it last.

I'm off to google images of an Eddy Merckx-Molteni, 1974 vintage now.......

Ber Nard

I keep coming back to look at this; it's stunning!

I love the look of modern Campag groupsets on classic steel frames. I've got an Athena groupset that is going to go on a modern build, might change the plan now.

BTW, are they Bordeaux gold Hudz?

Rob

napoleond

I bought a 1989 steel Merckx to scratch an itch, built it up with spare parts to see if I like it. I freaking love it. The columbus TSX tubing is really stiff but buttery smooth. I'm sold on steel...
Just need to build it up properly rather than it being made up of bastardised parts...

thegreatdivide

Ber Nard wrote:

BTW, are they Bordeaux gold Hudz?

Yes they are Rob. It's as close as you can get to oldschool hoods for V3 Campagnolo shifters.