1994 Colnago Master Alloy

[WimVDD]

I never really owned one of these when they were new (didn't have the money for it as I was a student back in the mid nineties) but it was one of the bikes that were ridden by my "heroes". In this case a Belgian hero: Paul Herygers, the 1994 Cyclo Cross World Champion. Before he became the WC CX, Paul was the best Belgian mountainbiker (although he couldn't climb even a simple hill...): he was triple National Champion Cross Country ànd one of our better downhillers. We're talking 1993-1994.
1993 was the year I started mountainbike competition so Paul was one of the guys I had to compete with. That competition was only experienced from my side as I was only filling the peloton, not being any threat to Paul or other pro's.

But Paul was one of my heroes and he was riding a Colnago. He had Campagnolo, Magura and a Tioga disc drive on his bike but niow, I'm happy I could build this 1994 Master Alloy with some era correct parts: an 8 speed XT groupset, Syncros Cattle Prod stem, Onza Ufo Mongo II headset, Hoskar "Colnago" saddle, Ringlé H2O cage and a Suntour XC Pro seatpost. I only need a decent set of M737 pedals to complete it.

 

[madjh]

Very good looking bicicle despite as a mtbiker I´m not a fan of colnago.

 

[WimVDD]

Very good looking bicicle despite as a mtbiker I´m not a fan of colnago.

I completely understand what you mean. There's other nineties mountainbikes that got (get...) me wilder than this one. ;-) But when I started mountainbiking, these were part of the scene so that's why bought it when it crossed my path.

 

[Elev12k]

Nice bike and thanks for the write up. I remember the frame plus fork were a bit over 2000 guilders back than. The mountainbike museum in Arnhem, Holland has a welded aluminium Colnago with twin downtube. I think it has a slimmer (round?) toptube.

Pinarello had a similar model: the Rombo.

 

[mk one]

Great bike and info.

Curious about the frame though as it is hard to find any info on the Alloy version as most is about the steel frames. Do you have any other info on years, production and frame changes etc? I am more than curious as i have an Alloy Master frame and fork myself and dating it exactly has been hard. Also seen an Alloy Master with top routed cables so there are different versions.

And on your frame is that paint that looks like top gussets on the top and down tubes?

Cheers

Mark

 

[WimVDD]

This comes from the 1994 catalogue.

I remember most early nineties mtb's had cable routing under downtube (as was common on road bikes). Later this changed to top tube cabling (in our bad weather gear cables were catching too much mud).

I used to have a 1995 Ibex (steel one) and that one had top routed cables and threadless forks. I assume that was the year they changed. But as you say: very little information on these frames. I suppose that's because most mountainbikers didn't want the classic (road) brands but preferred popular American brands.

 

[mk one]

Thats great, thanks

Have you got any more info on the bike Paul Herygers rode? was he sponsered by Colnago or did he just ride a Colnago bike?

mark

 

[WimVDD]

Thats great, thanks

Have you got any more info on the bike Paul Herygers rode? was he sponsered by Colnago or did he just ride a Colnago bike?

mark

He was riding for the Saxon-Tönisteiner team (manager Gerard Bulens, he was the later manager of the Landbouwkrediet team) and they were sponsored by Colnago. I believe Herygers became world champion cx on a steel Master CX bike.