Colnago frame geometry?

on-yer-bike

Is it deliberate that with Colnago frames the reach measurement is almost the same on frame sizes from 48 -57 standard geo (and the same for equivalent sloping geo). How can you work out what frame size you are? I would like to know what their thinking is.

ugo.santalucia

Look at PROs, they get the smallest frame they can get away with... Quintana rides an Islabikes re-stickered. For you I'd say 48...

Monty Dog

Colnago geometry is different from most other frames - slacker headtubes and different fork offsets from usual. Suggest you go to a dealer for a test ride / advice to make sure you choose the right size. Might not be as agressive as some other 'race' bikes, but does mean it's very stable at any speed - it's got me out of high-speed near misses due to me pushing too hard that would probably have upset some of my other bikes. I was riding mine the other day and my mate was riding his Cervelo R3 on a narrow lane with a sharp, off-camber corner - there was gravel and mud over the road that required a change of line mid-turn. I negotiated it no problem whereas my mate on his Cervelo ran-off the road into the ditch - which was quite comical to witness.

on-yer-bike

Is it more of a case of choosing the headtube length that will give you a suitable drop, balanced with how much seatpost you want showing? The bigger the frame, the slacker the seat tube which is probably the reason the reach remains constant on all those sizes.

FransJacques

HT isn't a bad guide. Take your current bike and measure from the gap between the fork and HT to the bottom of your stem to give you an idea of what HT height you want for your next bike - you might want to tweak how many spacers you have for example.

Take the HT measurement and figure out what 2 (or 3!) sizes you could possibly ride, then start to tick off other measurements: e.g. saddle setback, saddle to bar, saddle top to BB, to zero in on the 'best' size for you.

Let me explain BB to saddle top: if your measurement is 80cm you can ride a 56 Sloping Colnago which has a 56 cm seat tube leaving ~24cms of seatpost-plus-saddle which would look OK but in my opinion is a little stumpy. You could also ride the 54 and show a bit more post (like it!) but the 55cm Top Tube is short so you could end up with a 13cm stem (very pro but it slows the handling a tad). Lots of trade offs. And in the end, you might find that Colnago doesn't really offer you the geometry you want.

BTW this is the geo chart I used for the above: http://www.sigmasport.co.uk/item/Colnag ... metry/2S9V