How Colnago became the Ferrari of cycling
The Milanese maker is behind the most desirable frames on the market
Ernesto Colnago is to the bike what Enzo Ferrari was to the car. Over the years, the Lombardy-based maker’s frames have acquired the same aura of sprezzatura as the chilli-pepper-red sports cars. “They’re an aspirational brand,” says collector Julian Carpenter, who owns 22 Colnagos. “You dream about those bikes.”
Colnago has been working on bikes since 1945, when he lied about his age to get a job at the Gloria bike factory in Milan. After an injury put paid to his racing career he turned his focus to making frames, and quickly gained a reputation for his willingness to innovate. Since then, the slick road-racing bikes have been ridden by some of the greatest cyclists in the sport, including Eddy Merckx, whose exploits aboard a Colnago Super, an aggressive racing frame with highly responsive handling, in the early 1970s elevated the brand to new heights. Now 93, Colnago still works at the company’s Milanese headquarters.
“It’s not just about quality,” explains Brian Digby of Classic and Vintage Cycles, based in Hadfield, Derbyshire, of Colnago’s appeal. “Italy is full of artisan builders that are better than Colnago, but Ernesto is a great marketeer. He told a good story.”
“People seek out Colnagos because they’re like a Ferrari — everyone knows what they are,” says Alex Bindon of east London-based independent bike shop The Hackney Peddler.
There are a dizzying variety of frame designs to choose from. Of the non-limited-edition steel bikes, or the standard range of Colnago models, the decision is down to personal preference. Fans of classic steel frames are often drawn to the super-stiff Master with its signature “star-shaped” crimps, produced from 1983 and still made in Italy (a new model retails from £2,566, while a good condition vintage bike will cost around £1,900).
Those looking for a more experimental frame might seek out the Nuovo Mexico, a lighter evolution of the Super Profil, which was ridden by Giuseppe Saronni’s Del Tongo cycle team in the early 1980s. Classic and Vintage has a restored 1983 Nuovo Mexico frame in candy-red Saronni colours for sale for £1,795.
Models are distinguished by different crimps on the frame’s steel tubes, or details on the lugs that hold the frame together. It pays to become familiar with these marks before buying. “There are a lot of misdescribed models,” warns Digby. “Do your research and a bit of due diligence.” “If you’re spending £5,000 on a Nuovo Mexico, you want to be sure it’s not actually the more common Super Profil,” says Carpenter — the Nuovo Mexico has two crimps either side of the down tube to the Super Profil’s one. His blog, Saarf London, lays out the distinctive characteristics of each frame.
The market peaked in the aftermath of the pandemic, so a good build for riding is relatively affordable. “A quality frame will start from about a grand,” says Bindon, who sources them for clients and builds according to their specifications (a loud pink-and-purple Super frame he has in stock costs £900). “For neo-retro builds you’d be starting from £2,000, but nicer things will go for more.” The comparatively low price is attracting new buyers, says Carpenter. “There are a lot of car collectors buying now; it’s easier to spend £10,000 on a bike than £1mn on a car.”
Limited-edition models, produced to celebrate brand anniversaries, collaborations or one-offs for particular riders, can stretch into five figures. Slovenia-based Premium Cycling has a 1989 C35 Oro, an early carbon-fibre bike built in collaboration with Ferrari to celebrate Colnago’s 35th anniversary, in scarlet with gold-coloured components, for €26,999. Good condition similarly supercharges value. In May, Premium’s Jure Kocjan, a former professional cyclist, sold a one-of-a-kind 1986 Master Pista bike, an extremely aerodynamic steel-framed bike with twin disc wheels, in museum-quality condition for €25,000.
There’s a growing market, too, for Colnago’s carbon-fibre frames, which pushed lightweight bike construction to new levels in the early 1990s. The C40, a carbon-fibre take on Colnago’s signature construction, was the chosen bike for Mapei, the most elite professional Italian racing team, from 1994 to 2001. “The C40 and C50 [its even lighter successor, released in 2004] didn’t have the value in the past but are getting more desirable because they were among the last ‘made in Italy’ Colnago bikes,” explains Kocjan — newer models are now produced in Taiwan (he has a C40 from 2000 with a hand-painted “Art Decor” paint scheme on sale at €1,899). In 2023 he sold Tour de France winner Tadej Pogačar’s V3RS, the top of the range carbon-fibre model, for an undisclosed sum.
These days, Digby says, lots of collectors are simply looking for “a show pony, a wall wanger”. The most flamboyant of these is surely the gold-leaf-embellished C67 Gioiello, studded with a 2.3ct diamond, that sold at Sotheby’s in May 2023 for $133,000. You’d be a fool to ride it — but there’s no better expression of Colnago’s talent for turning a bike into a work of art.