BIKE BUILDERS PAR EXCELLENCE

We take a look at some of the finest bike designers and builders that have ever been involved in the sport

Ernesto Colnago

Ernesto Colnago keeps a pen and paper by the side of his bed so when he wakes up in the middle of the night with an idea he can immediately write it down.

Those ideas are then transferred on to bigger sheets of paper that he keeps in his desk draws in his office at Colnago HQ. Even now in his eighties, his mind never stops working as he continues to run the most revered bike manufacturer in cycling.

The son of a farmer born in to poverty, Colnago left home at 16 when he saw a sign advertising work in Milan.

One of the jobs advertised was in a bicycle factory.

A competent rider himself, he once found himself out riding with Fiorenzo Magni. In the 50s and 60s, there were three greats of Italian cycling. Fausto Coppi, Gino Bartali and Magni. On that ride, Magni was on a new bike, but explained to Colnago that his leg was bothering him.

“I looked at his cranks and knew something was wrong,” Colnago said. They stopped by Colnago’s workshop, where he fixed the issue with the cranks. The next day, Magnirang and asked him to be his mechanic at the Giro which he went on to win.

In 1962, Colnago joined the Molteni team and when Eddy Merckx arrived in 1971, Colnago already had a huge reputation. But it was Colnago who was in awe. “I worked with many​ riders, but I found Eddy Merckx to be the most brilliant,” he said. It was a match made in heaven.

Colnago’s attention to detail was – and still is – equal to Merckx’s. If you ask Colnago, he’ll say he taught pro riders how to sit on their bikes rather than the other way round.

He left Molteni and Merckx in 1974 to become bike sponsor at Scic, with the Colnago name appearing on the down tube for the first time.