Every magazine displayed their unbelievable (heh!) dominance whilst crushing pedals attached to the brilliantly painted C40.
But, I was being sold the Italian masterpiece via the pelotonal marketing assault the Mapei team was waging on the pro peloton around that time.
Even in the midst of a shop full of the latest Treks, GTs, Giants, Bianchis, as well as a few spectacular leftover Fondriest frames, there was one bike that captured my imagination: the Mapei Colnago C40. My indoctrination started in earnest once I found myself employed in a bike shop. Think of this as the CliffNotes for fanboy cycling history.
Even in light of these facts and my apparent inability to provide anything fresh, I shall proceed and continue. Sumptuous, loving images have been captured of its visage. Blog posts have been, well, posted before this. Maybe Oscar Freire can, though.Magazine articles with insider knowledge of construction history have been written before this. But they can’t see the internal details that make our bikes better and worth the price,” comments Alessandro Colnago, Ernesto’s nephew and marketing director. “People see a price difference between our bikes and many of the others. If, for instance, a tubing supplier alerted the company to a defect in a shipment of tubes, Colnago could trace the exact frames the tubes were used on and recall only those specific ones. By bringing its manufacturing process up to this standard, Colnago can trace each frame back to the smallest detail of material source, lot number, date of manufacture, and people who worked on it. It would be much cheaper to have one stay and not machine a different B-Stay mold for each size, but it would not be as strong or stiff.Ĭolnago claims to be the world’s only bicycle manufacturer to qualify for ISO9001, the international standard of quality assurance which was recently renamed Vision 2000 with new rules and certification procedures. Each size frame size has a different B-Stay, with a longer or shorter triangle above the bridge to optimize the stiffness.
The bridge creates a reinforcing triangle out of the upper part of the stay, making the system much more rigid than a simple wishbone. But unlike one-size-fits-all wishbone whose upper end is simply cut off to fit the particular size of frame, the B-Stay is unique to each size and far more rigid.Įach leg of the B-Stay is narrow laterally and deep front-to-back for greater braking stiffness, and the whole structure resembles a tall inverted Y with an cross bridge for the brake, rather than simply mounting the brake at the wishbone crotch as others do. At first glance, the B-Stay may look like the carbon wishbone seatstays currently in vogue on metal and carbon frames. It is far more expensive, but it is much better titanium cannot corrode, and it has stronger threads and bonding.Īnother refinement that is not to be confused with similar-looking features on other frames is the “B-Stay” carbon seatstay of the C40.
Now, Colnago’s titanium sleeve is knurled on the outside and has four teeth locking into notches in the carbon shell (see photo). Early models had aluminum bottom bracket sleeves like most carbon frames. The carbon is now lighter and stiffer, and the stays and bottom bracket have changed since the first of its Paris-Roubaix victories. That’s right – custom carbon frames! And if the airlines damage one of your tubes, Colnago can replace the tube and get your bike back on the road you need not buy a whole new frame. In eight years of making C40s, Colnago claims to have never had a single failed glue bond.Ĭolnago makes C40 lugs in 19 different angles so a wide variety of geometries are possible, and customers can order custom C40s. The fully-contacting tubes work together and complement the lug’s strength. On a welded metal frame, it is obvious that there would be no strength to the joint if the tubes did not have this kind of complete contact to eliminate gaps in the weld, and it also makes a bike difference in a bonded carbon frame. Colnago instead miters each carbon tube precisely, just like the tubes of a welded titanium or aluminum frame (or lugged steel Colnago Master), so each tube fish-mouths around the next tube with complete contact between the tubes. Most lugged carbon builders cut the tubes off straight and stick them into or over the lugs, but then the joint strength is entirely dependent on the lug’s strength. Integral to the C40 are one-piece molded, hand-finished carbon lugs that eliminate the bonding problems and weight of aluminum lugs and are stronger, stiffer, lighter (and costlier) than carbon lugs made of separate parts glued together. Mitered tubes ready for the bottom bracket shell