The Belgian brand U Scannini also produced a road bike in the early 90’s with gilco tubing and chromed headtube lugging, easily identifiable by the “U.Scannini”cut out on top of the bb shell, here’s an example I sold a while back… This company actually used Columbus Gilco tubing on a model, and the frames are highly regardedĬut outs on lugging tend to be heart shaped.
Henk was a fan of Ernesto’s work, and amalgamated his son’s name Corne with Colnago, Here’s a strange thing, a crashed Colner Colnago Cyclocross,Ĭolner produced a number of other fakes in the late ’70’s to mid ’80’s, including their rendition of the Viner Special.Ī brand owned by a Henk Kokke of Kokke Sport, and made in Sint Willebrord, the Netherlands,paintwork was done in Belgium. Notice the ”Spade”‘ cut on bb, Colnago’s always have a clubĪgain with the ”spade”, here are Colnago lug and fork crown cut outs This brand does have lineage to Colnago, and was marketed by Ernesto,more about it at the legendary , There are also three main culprits in the ‘field of fake’ Colnagos, both Dutch/Belgian manufacturers …… The brand also made aluminium frames from Columbus Airplane, as Colnago did with the Lux Dream…įirstly, I have only seen ‘fakes” in the earlier versions of Colnago’s, I suppose it would be difficult to fake a Lux Dream with the over sized crimped tubes or a C50 Superlight where you can see the quality of the carbon used in the weave pattern. Vagacini actually sprayed frames in silimar Colnago type decor, possibly using the same painters within the Benelux due to the Codagex connection, and associate has told me he bought a number of un painted Colnago Bi Titian frames ( 32 in one go ! ) from Codagex on the strict grounds that he use their approved painter befor relasing onto the market…take this Colnago Master Panasonic Isotar decor. This brand is sometimes confused as Colnago built ,and is actually from the Gemertse region of the Netherlands, and owned byRens van Ganzewinkel, who is the main man at Codagex, the Benelux Colnago distributor and the name Vagacini is an amalgamation of VAnGAnzewinkelCycleImportNederlandItalia ( source ) The seat stay caps and lugging share similarities with the mid to late ’70’s Colnago Mexico. The third brand is Celo Europa, these frames were made by Colnago forĬelo Europa/Marcel Calborn in Southern California. Here you can compare to similarities between the two brands. The Rauler brand was said to have developed pantographing for Colnago, and could be said to have inspired the intricate lug work on the Colnago Arabesque… Rauler became one of the top contract builders for Colnago and did much of the pantographing for them as well.” (source) It is unsure just what the relationship with Ernesto was, but what is known that the name Rauler is from Raul and the first two letters of Ernesto, hence Rauler. “One or both brothers worked for Colnago before starting up the Rauler marquee. The first is Alan, who made the Dual and Carbitubo for Colnago, as well as this Colnago Mapei GB frame set from my own collection. There are 3 brands that can claim lineage to Colnago legitimately. apparently there was a real mess in the distribution channels and with the “Italian bike boom” blazing- Colnagos were in the 1970s what Rolex watches were in the 1980s… I have heard a number of stories about the fakes but with subcontracting and the Italian tradition to copy- who said it was a Chinese thing- its hard to spot the truth… The mass of fakes and some not-so-stellar real Colnagos nearly knocked them off the map for a while…” There was little to believe that they were not. They were of such mediocre build quality that Ernesto claimed they were counterfeits- I actually sat behind Ernesto on a flight many, many years ago but we chatted about cycling sport and not his frames. “Back in the 1970s there were a number of very poor quality Colnagos sold in the US. Here’s a quote from a forum member (Edwardz) at … their bikes provenance, here’s what I go by and have learned in identifying a genuine Colnago. The rise in interest in vintage Colnagos has led to a number of fakes appearing on the market,and as a number of owners have contacted me re.