I have a C50 and used to have a C40
Colnago is a brand in rapid and possibly terminal decline.
The C40 was the bike of bikes. Each tube (and, when I say tube I mean each Master section, which is a very different thing from a round tube) was pinned to each lug with copper pins. Ernesto would chuck out any frame that wasn't 100%. The paint was done by two brothers in Pisa, who'd been painting Colnagos for half a century. Or so we were led to believe - but, true or not, half the peleton in the Tour were on C40s, oftentimes disguised as something else.
Then the competition vaulted ahead with computer-designed monocoque bikes, leaving Colnago with a choice - stick with the traditional frame but design everything to the max, or go the monocoque way. They did both. The monocoques are no different from any other. The C50, which is no improvement on the C40 (and looked a far poorer thing), has been supplanted by the C59, which is the last word in handmade bikes - middle aged male jewellery on an epic scale.
Which brings us to the customer. If that's what you want, then pay the money. It's a thing of great beauty. But....if it's the ride you want then get a Spesh. Or a Trek. And save yourself squillions. Having said that......brands have to mean something, and I don't think that the 'C' in C59 means what it did when you can buy an overpriced Taiwanese-made Colnago in
Evans. In a way it's like the Campagnolo v. Shimano thing - you want the Campagnolo brand, then pay the money, but their lower and midrange shifters are unimpressive and their wheels are just plain mediocre.
I don't rule out buying a C59, or whatever succeeds it, but if I do it will be because I'm in love with the idea of people making stuff in the old way, not because I think it's any better a frame to ride than a top of the range Roubaix.
