Colnago C59 Italia

SLN57

After selling my HiFi, tools, old bike bits and anything else that wasn't bolted down I finally raised enough money for this...




The Super Record groupset is excellent, very slick and positive. I was going to fit Record to save money but I knew I would regret it later so paid the extra, I'm very glad I did.



I was expecting the paintwork to be good but it's actually flawless. The light red is a heavy metallic that looks great in the sunshine, that's if we had any. Every time I see this bike it reminds me of the old Marlboro Maclaren's driven by Senna and Prost.




The wheels are Fulcrum Zero Dark Labels with ceramic bearings and roll very well, better than the Kysrium SL's I use as training wheels.



It's not especially light, about 7kg on my bathroom scales, but if I fitted my carbon race wheels I think it would come in around 6.7-8kg. I won't be racing this as I could never afford to replace it if I broke it, which is a real shame as it would be/is an awesome race bike. I have a Cube Litening which is now my full time training/race bike and that's good enough for me at my mediocre standard.

The ride is surprisingly smooth, comparable to steel but lighter, and the handling is outstanding. If you are considering C59 I can thoroughly recommend it.

And by the way the pictures really don't do it justice.

russyh

My oh my, what a stunna!

flasher

Awesome, lucky you 8)

Cleat Eastwood

Cor - amazing - if you ever ride that in the muddy winter you should have your nads removed - looks stunning.

napoleond

That'll do pig. That'll do.

tim_wand

Sweet Jesus that must have been some Stereo and Tool Box you had there!

That is one Bella bike, love it. How much does a kidney go for nowadays?

Really cant decide if my numbers came in between this with EPS and Boras . Or a Master with mechanical record,

Dont think its a decision that's going to be troubling me soon some how.

Enjoy the bike whenever you can shes a beauty.

MattC59

Yum !!!!!

One day I shall have one to go with my name

baldwin471

Ok, how many goes on the missus do you want for this?

doublem_1

Beautiful bike that

BlakeysFC

I just had to change my trousers.

One of THE best looking bikes I've ever seen. Drool...

ilm_zero7

nice, very nice - and so glad to see super record on it - perfect!

SLN57

Thanks for all your comments, I'm glad you like it.

tim wand wrote:

Sweet Jesus that must have been some Stereo and Tool Box you had there!

Yes it was a very good HiFi and used to be one of my passions but riding bikes has replaced it and takes up all of my spare time so I rarely listen to music now. The tools were all Snap On, I was in the car trade and I had quite a lot.

Plus, surprisingly, Ebay was kind to me, I normally get fleeced but everything I sold seemed to make good money.

Flasher wrote:

Awesome, lucky you 8)

I know, I'm a lucky boy.

siamon

Is it inappropriate to ask what the final bill was?

tim_wand

SLN57 wrote:

Thanks for all your comments, I'm glad you like it.

tim wand wrote:

Sweet Jesus that must have been some Stereo and Tool Box you had there!

Yes it was a very good HiFi and used to be one of my passions but riding bikes has replaced it and takes up all of my spare time so I rarely listen to music now. The tools were all Snap On, I was in the car trade and I had quite a lot.

Plus, surprisingly, Ebay was kind to me, I normally get fleeced but everything I sold seemed to make good money.

Flasher wrote:

Awesome, lucky you 8)

I know, I'm a lucky boy.

When you ve recovered, Get a Audionote Dragonfly DAC and Headphone amp and some decent cans and listen to everything on your P.C.

Other than old vinyl which I darent play nowadays, most stuff sounds just as good on this as it did on my Hi-Fi set up.
(The Hi fi is nearly 20 years old though).

And as others have said, Well done, right way to go, I am petitioning the Italian Government to make it law that Italian Colnagos can only be sold/built with Campy. (Shame Berlosconni has been voted out I was enjoying the partys)

SLN57

siamon wrote:

Is it inappropriate to ask what the final bill was?

I honestly don't know I've not had the courage to add it all up, £5k? I bought the frame from Maestro and the rest of the bits from bike-discount.de so made some good savings there.

tim wand wrote:

When you ve recovered, Get a Audionote Dragonfly DAC and Headphone amp and some decent cans and listen to everything on your P.C.

Other than old vinyl which I darent play nowadays, most stuff sounds just as good on this as it did on my Hi-Fi set up.
(The Hi fi is nearly 20 years old though).

And as others have said, Well done, right way to go, I am petitioning the Italian Government to make it law that Italian Colnagos can only be sold/built with Campy. (Shame Berlosconni has been voted out I was enjoying the partys)

Good advice Tim but I kept my speakers and bought a Naim UnitiQute. I've saved all my CDs as Apple lossless and stream them to the UnitiQute from a networked hard-drive, it sounds very good especially the 24bit 192khz recordings I've recently downloaded.

I agree with you about the use of Campagnolo on Italian bikes, anything else just doesn't seem right.

tim_wand

Good advice Tim but I kept my speakers and bought a Naim UnitiQute. I've saved all my CDs as Apple lossless and stream them to the UnitiQute from a networked hard-drive, it sounds very good especially the 24bit 192khz recordings I've recently downloaded.

I ve stop feeling sorry for you now You ve not exactly deprived yourself too greatly with that set up and I bet the speakers arent exactly Wharfedale Diamonds.!

If you built that for £5K you got yourself a serious bargain, I was thinking nearer £7k.

clu

Love the bike, very classy.

You mentioned you bought the frame from Maestro (Based in Bognor Regis?), can I ask how long it took for you to receive the frame from your initial order. Did you choose the colour of the frame from what had the shortest delivery time, I realise this might be different now due to a change in the colour schemes for the 2013 colnagos.

How did you determine what size frame you needed, or did you have an idea of what size you needed already when you ordered the frame?. I'm considering doing something similar myself.

ilm_zero7

Clu wrote:

you bought the frame from Maestro (Based in Bognor Regis?), can I ask how long it took for you to receive the frame from your initial order. .

i know someone who had just got his - 11 months after the order was placed!!

FransJacques

Nicely done, rarely see 3T stems on Nags and that is defo the best integrated one I've ever seen.

I know what you mean by not racing it, I too have an "event bike" which is my nicest one with the lightest wheels. I race a 2006 frame with heavier but stiffer wheels (CL24s) b/c if I crash it, I won't cry...(so hard anyway)

giant_man

nicely colour co-ordinated, nice one!

Red is not my thing, but this does look lovely.

SLN57

Clu wrote:

Love the bike, very classy.

You mentioned you bought the frame from Maestro (Based in Bognor Regis?), can I ask how long it took for you to receive the frame from your initial order. Did you choose the colour of the frame from what had the shortest delivery time, I realise this might be different now due to a change in the colour schemes for the 2013 colnagos.

How did you determine what size frame you needed, or did you have an idea of what size you needed already when you ordered the frame?. I'm considering doing something similar myself.

Thank you. I drove down to Mike at Maestro to be measured and to look at some of the frames he had that were awaiting collection. I was originally going to get a green & matt black Europcar frame or the Nero matt black, both were there and looked great but I thought that a matt finish may be easily marked and you wouldn't be able to polish blemishes out.
The white and red colour scheme was not even on my radar before I saw it at Maestro but seeing in the flesh with the sunlight glinting off the metallic red paint just did it for me.

ILM Zero7 wrote:

Clu wrote:

you bought the frame from Maestro (Based in Bognor Regis?), can I ask how long it took for you to receive the frame from your initial order. .

i know someone who had just got his - 11 months after the order was placed!!

My frame only took two months to arrive, and according to Mike, other orders placed at the same time were in before mine. My experience with Maestro has been excellent so he gets my recommendation.

FransJacques wrote:

Nicely done, rarely see 3T stems on Nags and that is defo the best integrated one I've ever seen.

I know what you mean by not racing it, I too have an "event bike" which is my nicest one with the lightest wheels. I race a 2006 frame with heavier but stiffer wheels (CL24s) b/c if I crash it, I won't cry...(so hard anyway)

Thanks. This is my 'growing old together bike' to be used for sunny days and special events like the Raid Pyrénéen which I want to do next year. I intend to keep it a long time.

the_fuggler

It certainly gets a 'woof!' from me. Stunning.

cgraley77

cor blimey. gorgeous

guinea

would

Paul 8v

tim wand wrote:

And as others have said, Well done, right way to go, I am petitioning the Italian Government to make it law that Italian Colnagos can only be sold/built with Campy. (Shame Berlosconni has been voted out I was enjoying the partys)

This should really be a law, shimano road gear is not the prettiest and SRAM is just bloody horrible looking (No offense to the users I'm sure it works fine)
As with Italian cars, it doesn't even have to work, it just has to look beautiful. Lovely bike

nickel

Quite possibly the nicest looking bike I have ever seen on these forums, I love Colnagos.

Velonutter

Really Lovely Frame, cool Mate.

I have two Colnagos, my C59 150th Edition and my matt White/Black CX-1, both are just beautiful to ride.

Unfortunately the 4 times I have ridden my C59 this year it has rained :x So now I just ride the CX-1 when it is likely to rain, you did correct not going for Matt as it is harder to keep clean.

I was tempted to go Electronic EPS with the C59, but glad I didn't as I wanted to keep the frame nostalgic.

Have you run your hands lovingly over those tubes? Beautiful aren't they?

Enjoy the bike as you will never want for anything better.

Churchill123

Absolute BEAUT! Enjoy her

SLN57

Nickel wrote:

Quite possibly the nicest looking bike I have ever seen on these forums, I love Colnagos.

Thank you, I agree, visually there's something about a Colnago I can't quite define but riding one makes it all quite apparent.

Velonutter wrote:

Really Lovely Frame, cool Mate.

I have two Colnagos, my C59 150th Edition and my matt White/Black CX-1, both are just beautiful to ride.

Unfortunately the 4 times I have ridden my C59 this year it has rained :x So now I just ride the CX-1 when it is likely to rain, you did correct not going for Matt as it is harder to keep clean.

I was tempted to go Electronic EPS with the C59, but glad I didn't as I wanted to keep the frame nostalgic.

Have you run your hands lovingly over those tubes? Beautiful aren't they?

Enjoy the bike as you will never want for anything better.

I thought about EPS as well but there's nothing wrong with a cable system and it's a lot cheaper. Your'e right about the tubes they are lovely and their profile is pure Colnago.
Your 150th Edition is stunning and looks fantastic on the Boras. I've been lucky with the weather recently and have done about 600 miles on mine. My only problem is wanting to take it out on every ride, I don't want to wear it out.

Churchill123 wrote:

Absolute BEAUT! Enjoy her

Thanks, I will.

jonny1967

I honestly think I would sell my kids into slavery for that

fleshtuxedo

Awesome bike - really like the different shades of red on the frame. What's the tail on the saddle?