Originally Posted by
bamboobike4
Still have no idea if this is a Super or Superissimo.
I'm going to guess a Superissimo of around a 1990 vintage. Why?.....
1 - The seat stay caps first appeared around 1988 (e.g. Conic Total Spiral frames). These seat stay caps could still found on models such as the Tecnos of the late 90's and early 2000's. The later versions on the Superissimo had the seat stays directly 'welded' to the seat tube without seat stay caps.
2 - The front curved bladed fork pre-dated the 1989 Precisa straight bladed front fork. The curved bladed fork was still available after 1989 and had a single 'ace of clubs (flowers)' cast into the crown on either side which superseded the crown with the 'ace of clubs' surrounded by the 'C' of Colnago as seen on earlier front forks.
3 - The front steerer tube lugs with the 'apostrophe' cut-outs and a single point (instead of the Master variants and later 1995 Superissimo variants with the tri-points) were used on the Superissimo's of the circa.1990 era.
4 - I am only guessing, as I can't see very well, that the rear dropouts are Colnago's short version.
5 - I would say that your frame has been re-painted with decals used that suited the previous owner.
I think the key to identifying this frame are the steerer tube lugs and the seat stay caps. It would be interesting next time you remove the bottom bracket and feel around the tubes (or perhaps use a mirror) to see if you can see some internal spirals that would suggest Columbus SLX tubes like a Superissimo would have had around the 1990 vintage.
Unfortunately dating and identifying Colnago's is not an exact science. Around this general era the actual frame shop that built the frame cannot be identified to my knowledge and the serial numbers aren't reliable.
It's a vey nice bike what ever Colnago model it is.