colnago master olympic, 56cm sale or swap modern carbon.

[rusty bodie]

BOOTIFUL!!

now if you got a nice corsa record groupset on that . . .

 

[1988_Ben]

You guys are doing a great job of changing my mind! I polished it up today and I forgot how nice it looks! The main reason I would keep it is because it will always be a 'special' bike where as pretty much any modern will become dated at some point (as the master ounce was) but wont gain the status the master now has? maybe some choice upgrades would give it more zip? just wonder if carbon cranks and fancy wheels would look out of place?

This is a key problem. Most new stuff doesn't look classy any more and will look outdated. Sometimes the absolute best item at the time can remain the pinnacle of technology for quite some time, to the extent there's very little advantage in ever renewing it. And if you don't buy the best, you will always be thinking about upgrading it in years to come, rather than making sure you've got it for life. For you to get the modern equivalent of a Master, well, I don't even want to look at prices now. Maybe they are equivalent to current salary, same as 20 years ago, I don't know ? I'm sort of in between, in that I've got the best aluminium frame you could get in 2003, and there's only a tiny amount of benefit I could expect if I got the current 'top of the range'.

RE: Carbon cranks. I did recently purchase a 2011 Record chainset, and was amazed at how much lighter and stiffer it was than anything I'd ridden before. So although pricey, I would recommend this. I also remember a significant improvement when I upgraded 32 spoke 'bog standard' racing wheels to lighter/stiffer wheels with 16 aero spokes and deeper section aluminium rims (Bontrager X-Lites). So I'd so spend a good £1000 on nice parts for the Colnago.

If you want to win races, just get the miles in....and gets lots of sleep and a good breakfast before a race - that's all you need to know !

 

[Old Ned]

I raced yesterday and was brought down (along with several others) the result is broken carbon fibre forks

I'll bet that a steel frame in similar circumstances would hardly have been damaged at all structurally.

And it could be repaired relatively easily if it had been.

And no broken sharp pointy bits of carbon for you and the other crashers to impale yourselves on.

Mind you, as a dedicated Old Skooler I suppose I'm a little bit biased :roll:

 

[rusty bodie]

just a note for those that think that fancy bike parts make any difference whatsoever:

when we were in our late teens/ early 20s we used to meet for a 25 mile blast - 12.5 out and the same back. it was full on and used to attract anything between a dozen and sixty like minded psychos on a tuesday night. we all had the best of kit - super record, corsa record, 531 Pro and 753 frames, you name it. it was a glorious time with beautiful looking and very lightweight bikes filling the bunch every fair-weathered week.

one night this guy turned up with an old steel touring bike, tennis shorts, green flash trainers secured by toe clips and straps. oh and he had rear panniers too.

we made cringe-worthy faces behind this mick hucknall headed lad and set out for the weekly blast over the undulating dual carriageway.

every time that guy got up front he would ride off it! every single guy in the bunch would do his level best to reel him in or at least sit level with him. how could a pair of pale, ginger haired legs go so bleedin' fast?!!

on the return leg he simply rode off the front on one of the uphill drags and we never saw him again! we thought that it might have been steve jones or eric vanderaerden in dis-geeeze and would bring the subject up of his silent slaying of us proud young things for years to come.

moral: it may look nice on your bike, but if you don't have the legs it ain't gonna make you go faster!!

:shock:

 

[danaroby00]

sold one like this less than one month ago and I can assure to everyone that you can feel the charme of this frame only if you have it in your hands
obviously isn't a 1 kg frame, but the stellar pipes , so small are fantastic and impressive looking

fortunatly I still have the pearl white sister still in my garage and the looking of the stellar shape is still more emphatised

great frame, really a great frame