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Colnago C29 Italia Carbon Fiber 29er Hardtail Mountain Bike Spotted!

Written by Tyler Benedict
17 Comments
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2013-colnago-C29-29er-hardtail-mountain-bike2

The folks at Pianeta Mountain Bike spotted a prototype Colnago C29 carbon hardtail 29er under sponsored riders at the recent Italian XC national championships.

The frame reportedly uses multiple types of fibers and uses a carbon lug construction common for Colnagos. Cable routing is all internal, headtube is tapered and it’s running a standard 68mm outboard bearing bottom bracket (hopefully not Italian threaded!). Frame weight is reported at 1,150g, not bad considering the construction, and word is it’ll be raced at the Olympics and should make its official debut at the fall trade shows.

The rear end gets an internally placed 140mm post mount brake setup with standard quick release, apparently at the request of the team for faster wheel changes during a race. More info and plenty of photos at the link, a couple of select pics below the break…

2013-colnago-C29-29er-hardtail-mountain-bike2
Tyler Benedict
11,282 articles

Tyler Benedict is the Founder of Bikerumor.com, where he’s been writing about the latest bikes, components, and cycling technology for almost two decades. Prior to that, Tyler launched and built multiple sports nutrition brands and consumer goods companies, mostly as an excuse to travel and ride in new places.

Based in North Carolina, Tyler also loves the Vanlife & family adventure travel and is always on the lookout for the next shiny new part and off-grid adventure.

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17 Comments
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yo eddy
yo eddy
12 years ago

OMG that fork is on backwards!!!

J/K

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greg
greg
12 years ago

is it just me, or does that first picture look funny? bike looks short lengthwise. front wheel appears smaller than the rear.
something’s fishy, and it’s not the fish.

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endurobob
endurobob
12 years ago

I was thinking the same thing greg. Something looks very weird about that first photo. The whole bike looks short, the front wheel looks smaller, and the headtube angle looks SUPER steep

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spokejunky
spokejunky
12 years ago

Nice looking bike as expected from Colnago. Agreed the head tube angle looks incredibly steep as well as the rear triangle is pretty tight. That’d make for a fairly twitchy ride.

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ec
ec
12 years ago

g & e are correct–definitely not a wagon wheel up front!

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Brandon
Brandon
12 years ago

I think the bike is just angling away back to front from the camera. Look at the shadow on the ground, the front wheel is further from the lens by a bit. I’m pretty sure the camera is just messing with your eyes.

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Pete
Pete
12 years ago

The wheels aren’t parallel either.

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guy
guy
12 years ago

No press fit BB, but internally routed rear brake? Not trying to nit-pick too much here, but that seems like a miss on the priorities for a race bike.

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MattL
MattL
12 years ago

well if you have ridden a c59 you’d know colnago can make a pretty stiff frame with a BSA BB. Press fit BB’s are ways to make manufacturing frames cheaper 😉

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Bogey
Bogey
12 years ago

Well, it is a really, really small frame so of course it looks short. Along with that the DT reverse arch fork and negative rise stem throw things off.

Press fit BBs on mtbs have been nothing but creak city for all of my friends’ bikes. I’ll stick with threaded, thanks. @MattL is right, they’re just a way to save cost and trim a tiny bit of weight.

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Gilgooley
Gilgooley
12 years ago

This is Eva Lechner’s bike and she is only 165cm tall (about 5’4″), so, like any other small 29er, it’s not really a looker.
She actually won Italian championship few days back on this bike seeing it for the first time only hours before the race.
Production version will come with direct mount FD and 142×12 in the back.
Colnago proves once again that carbon frames can be made stiff without PressFit BB or beer can size tubes.

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offcamber
offcamber
12 years ago

meh, not impressed. Don’t put much credit with companies that ONLY offer hardtails for mtn bikes in their lines. The absence of dual suspension models tells me they don’t have a clue about mtn bikes.

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xtrncpb
xtrncpb
12 years ago

Here’s another article and some pics about new Colnago C29, edited by italian website http://www.mtb-forum.it : http://www.mtb-forum.it/nuova-colnago-c29/

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scissorhands
scissorhands
12 years ago

Hey …Let take guesses on how silly overpriced this frame is going to be?

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scissorhands
scissorhands
12 years ago

mmmm…Also is that a bolt together lower seatstay at the dropout end. Wow. I can’t stand that on the C59. This this just seems so low tech and old school manufacturing

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blooseville
blooseville
12 years ago

Beautiful, just beautiful… and to the ones that judge the quality of construction by a photo (the possibility to make it custom is low tech???), please visit http://www.mtb-forum.it/nuova-colnago-c29/ an read what crock (one of the designers) has to say about.

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BikeRiderXC
BikeRiderXC
12 years ago

No, that DTSwiss fork is NOT on backwards. DTSwiss has been making reverse-arch forks for wuite a while now, Maybe you just havent seen them until now

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