Colnago has just announced their all-new C60, the range topping road bike of their line.
The bike gets all new tube shapes, lugs and many other details to set it apart. Tube profiles have a more pronounced extrusion of Colnago’s signature “star” shape, and that shape carries over to the lugs and seat tube for the first time. Wall thickness is reduced, but tube diameters go up, yielding a frame they say is lighter, stiffer and stronger without compromising comfort.
Heck, even the dropouts and water bottle mounts were redesigned to be lighter and stronger, too…
Three color schemes will be offered: Racing (black), Italia (above) and Classic.
The head tube looks blends the lugs into the shape smoothly and integrates the cable stops for internal routing.
The seat tube flares as it heads to the bottom bracket junction, becoming wider and taking full advantage of the shell’s size.
The new forged, CNC machined aluminum dropouts are said to be lighter than carbon alternatives. And stiffer and stronger, with better crash protection thanks to an inboard mounted breakaway derailleur hanger. A notch on the outside edge offers cleaner wiring for electronic systems.
The disc brake version will come shortly after the rim brake frames, and it’ll stretch to 135mm rear spacing. Gone is the one-piece mount, replaced by a threaded, co-molded alloy caliper mount on the front with a removable alloy mount at the rear. Compared to the C59, they dropped a whopping 140 grams (!!!) from the disc brake frame for the C60. They say it’ll also make installation and set up easier. The C59 came with 140mm rotors, but this rendering suggests it could allow for 160mm rotors to be used, also.
This should complement the more classics-oriented CX-Zero disc brake road bike introduced last fall.
The bottom bracket section illustrates the changes made throughout the entire frame. All of the tube cross sections have been drastically increased. The center wall inside some of the C59’s tubes has been removed, which helps them streamline production and increases overall compliance. Not only do the larger tube diameters improve stiffness, but Colnago says they better dissipate shock to smooth the ride.
Another interesting aspect of the bike is the bottom bracket. Yes, it’s introducing another new design, but thankfully not another standard. The carbon shell remains thin and light since it doesn’t have to bear the burden of bearing stability. Instead, a threaded alloy insert twists in from either side and creates a metal structure within the frame to hold the bearings. It’s called ThreadFit 86.5 and allows for any PF86.5 bottom brackets. It’s not unlike the thread-together Praxis Works BB30, except that it’s part of the frame.
