Originally Posted by
nenad
It was your frame I was looking at that gave me queues that paint on my Colnago, though nice, was not original; my dilemma now is if I should go for a repaint. Initially, I was planning to.
So, we agree on the year and the model, the last unexplained part remain the dropouts. Speaking of, they are quite similar to what you have on your Dream. Mine have holes and non replaceable hanger, but the shape look almost identical.
The dropouts were my big question too. They had me thinking that perhaps your frame was manufactured in the early 90's? I'm a real fan of Colnago bikes from that general era as they were the bikes I dreamt of owning but I'm not that conversant with models I had no contact with. I have only ever seen one or two International or Super Sprint models in my life and I do appreciate that certain Colnago models had upgrades as time progressed. I can well imagine vertical rear dropouts being introduced somewhere along a model variant's lifespan. And, add to that, the general lack of ability to pin Colnago frames down to accurate build dates.
The other glaring build feature is the attachment process of brazing the seat stays to the seat cluster - no seat stay caps - a probable feature of a lower end frame?
All that being said, I think it's really very interesting and challenging to collect frames a little lower down on the quality scale. These are usually frames that receive little collector respect and general interest and initial owners don't really look after such bikes - they are probably much rarer. Even though the Internationals/Super Sprints weren't Colnago's top models, they were still quality frames and they probably have lovely ride qualities like all Colnago's do. I really like bikes (and components) a little down the 'pecking order'.
Would I re-paint this frame if it were mine? I'm probably thinking along the same track you are. It's really hard to remove a paint job that's in very good condition and I would initially leave it as it is at the moment. Knowing myself reasonably well, this paint job would play on my mind over time and I would find myself eventually burning it off (I love burning off paint finishes with a blow torch - clean and quick and I think it 'normalises' the frame tubes) and re-painting it - but only after a bit of research looking at Super Sprints and how they were initially presented - and also considering the complexity of the paint schemes used. (Disclaimer: I have the means to re-painting a bike frame - much cheaper than farming it out to a professional painter to re-finish. Something I neglect to take into account - $'s don't grow on trees.)
Often a re-painted bike will have remnants of an original paint finish on the steerer tups or perhaps in the bottom bracket shell. I wonder if your frame could reveal an original paint colour?