Concerning carbon fibre.

Today, the carbon fibre in epoxy resin is the best material which is possible to use in bicycle frame building. This is not based just on the mechanical characteristics and its weight/resistance relation, but also on its useful “interlaced fibres” configuration. A carbon fibre structure is an architecture of layers. Any layer is selected and combined with the very next to keep the multiple and “heterogeneous” forces that income in any frame area during action. The same peculiarity that makes possible to combine the best performance with an excellent comfort.

Private interpretation.

Colnago was the first frame builder to see in carbon fibre the best partner in the evolution of cycling. He chosen to apply the highest technology deeply together with the concept of “custom size machine”.
Muscular extension, mobility of articulations and postural preferences in exercise and breathing action are too many variables to be locked in the cage of a mold. This is why any finest products in Colnago catalogue is a frame build in tubes and junctions potentially different for any athlete; for the 130 professional cyclists as for the millions of  demanding amateurs around the world.
With this conception, Colnago takes from the past the architecture of the frame of the future.

Research and method.

Even now that carbon fibre is easily available, its use hides a number of problems that can be solved just with a huge technologic sacrifice to not pay a heavy debit to safeness, to performances and to reliability. The tubes of Colnago frames are built with filament winding system. This process, which is realized around an INOX core, makes possible the total control of the thickness of the part even when the shape external or internal of the tube is not regular. For example for the tubes of C50 or the new 3PRS of Extreme Power. Moreover, thanks to the INOX “mirror treated” cores all the different layers are pressed together with extremely high pressure. This process limits the amount of resin to the strictly necessary quantity to tie the fibres together without excesses. This and the deep study about the angles of carbon makes the Colnago tubes a goal in weight/strenght relation.

Construction problems.

If to build a tube on a rigid core to be later removed is easy to imagine, to perform a complex structure as bottom bracket junction is pretty different and show problematic difficulties to be solved because of its shaped and because of all the different and simultaneous forces that come there together once in action. The fibres orientation, the nature of carbon type itself and the total control of the joining walls are the fruit of an exhausting research, laboratory and road tests.
The carbon junctions of Colnago Frames are built by the same fibres of the tubes: made in Italy with the highest quality standards. As for the tubes are the sum of overlapped layers of unidirectional type alternate with variously oriented wefts. The interlaced layers are commonly named 1K and 3K, the best configurations to give homogeneity, strenght and reactivity to a winning road bike. This comes over any aesthetic choices that some frame factory take without a real technical base.

Any detail makes the difference.

Length and shape of the joining surfaces, layers an orienting of the fibres. Nothing is for nothing and everything is related to angles and dimension in any single frame to obtain the maximum homogeneity in reactions. The junctions of Colnago frames take shape around a special high density polymer to be manually destroyed after the polymerisation. This exclusive system makes possible to build a cave component with complex (multifaceted) shape without to renounce to press the stratified fibres under exceptionally high pressures, as it happens on the tubes.

Mission: Win.

Passing over the commercial trends of new and strange profiles, the best section to oppose (counter) the dynamic forces that take part in cycling is never too far from the round one. The meeting of sollicitations are applied in torsion and flexion, in continuously varying proportion of one on the other. This is why Colnago is not seduced by extraordinary shapes and prefers an accurate study of the most performing solutions. To chase this goal borne the Colnago-Lab: centre of research, prototyping and tests where any new solution can be designed, realized and tested by the simulation and on the road in an incredibly short time.

Colnago and the weight.

The weight of the frame is a detail that is moving dangerous influences on the market. The extremely irregular and so unsafe street mantle, hides potential dangers that ca be manifested totally unpredicted and with strenght peaks incredibly perilous. Events that can bring an exceedingly lighten structure not just to crack, but to be totally broken. Moreover, there is the not infallibility of many building processes voted to lightening.
When the technology progress made possible to build road bikes between 7 and 8kg, an important goal has been reached, with a certain advantage in competition.
Today we see a limit around 1000g for a road frame and consider that the risk to reduce the weight of a frame too far from this point is a technical exercise without a deserving increase of efficiency. This is why the lightest frame from Colnago factory doesn’t go too low from 1kg (5% depending from the size).
The road has rewarded this choice with the conquest by Michael Rasmussen (Rabobank) of the “spots jersey” for the best climber of the Tour de France in 2005 and 2006 exactly with this frame. A light and performing frame without crack history.

The prize of victory Colnago like Ferrari.

The carbon fibre production in the Colnago 2007 catalogue takes for sure the hi-prize level on the market. Not just the row materials, but also the constructive processes are without compromises and this is one of the causes determining the cost. But more of this is the will to project, assemble and finish every single detail without to go outside of Cambiago. This is why Colnago is a state of style and advanced technology really and totally “Made in Italy”. A bicycle signed Colnago hides behind  its tactful (discreet) style the most meticulous and complex study of any facet, from the conception to realization. An investment that place the brand of the alfalfa where the Horse of Ferrari stays between the cars (automobiles).