wallymann
09-09-2011, 10:22 AM
back in the 2006-2007 timeframe colnago made a company-wide shift in the geometry they use. why they did this, i have no idea, as the long-used colnago geometry and resultant handling was legendary.
whatever the reason, the change happened and i was led to believe that the geometry change-over was broken out by model, with the legacy C40/C50/Extreme-C having the old-geometry and the newer Extreme-Power/EPS/C59/Asian-models having the new-geometry.
HOWEVER, this old vs. new geometry breakdown is apparently is not so simple.
i recently measured up a NOS ca. 2007 Colnago C50 (non-custom, non-sloping) from R&A cycles in NYC. i would have expected this frame to half the old-geometry spec.
it was a 62cm frame (verified) and the top-tube length was definitely longer than you'd see in the old-geometry. the top-tube was 59cm, which is what is found in the new-geometry spec for a 62cm. but the head-tube length was still 185cm as found in the old-geometry spec.
i can only surmise that this geometry "gray area" exists for legacy models, such as the C50, which stayed in production for some time after the change-over to the new-geometry.
so if you're in the market for a C50 and maybe even an Extreme-C and want to be totally sure of the geometry, i suggest taking actual measurements of the frame in question!
below is a handy reference PDF i put together showing the old- and new-geometry tables.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/29495821/ColnagoGeometryReference.pdf
whatever the reason, the change happened and i was led to believe that the geometry change-over was broken out by model, with the legacy C40/C50/Extreme-C having the old-geometry and the newer Extreme-Power/EPS/C59/Asian-models having the new-geometry.
HOWEVER, this old vs. new geometry breakdown is apparently is not so simple.
i recently measured up a NOS ca. 2007 Colnago C50 (non-custom, non-sloping) from R&A cycles in NYC. i would have expected this frame to half the old-geometry spec.
it was a 62cm frame (verified) and the top-tube length was definitely longer than you'd see in the old-geometry. the top-tube was 59cm, which is what is found in the new-geometry spec for a 62cm. but the head-tube length was still 185cm as found in the old-geometry spec.
i can only surmise that this geometry "gray area" exists for legacy models, such as the C50, which stayed in production for some time after the change-over to the new-geometry.
so if you're in the market for a C50 and maybe even an Extreme-C and want to be totally sure of the geometry, i suggest taking actual measurements of the frame in question!
below is a handy reference PDF i put together showing the old- and new-geometry tables.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/29495821/ColnagoGeometryReference.pdf