When the Colnago C50 was first introduced it became the defining bike of the high end road frameset market. Why? It's because Colnago has a track record of manufacturing innovative, durable, beautiful carbon bikes that no other company comes close to matching. It was 2002 or 2003 before other manufacturers caught up to Colnago's technology for mating carbon fiber lugs to carbon tubes. By then Colnago was already in their 5th or 6th generation of the C40 HP -- the predecessor to the vaunted C50.

Colnago is consistently ahead of the rest of the industry when it comes to carbon. Why is this? We can think of three central reasons: (1) The extensive field testing done to their prototype products by the world's leading race teams, such as Rabobank and Milram. (2) Their relationship with ATR, a legendary Italian company that earns its keep by providing composite materials and expertise to automotive luminaries such as Ferrari and Porsche, as well as a variety of aerospace concerns. ATR is literally next door to Colnago, and they produce every last bit of carbon used in a Colnago. (3) The leadership of Ernesto Colnago. He's a company and industry leader with a Jack Welch-like drive for success. Even at the age of 73 he's obsessed with making his name synonymous with the world's most advanced and beautiful bicycles.

The praise for the first generation C50 was universal, but Colnago has never been a company to rest on its laurels. Colnago and ATR engaged in an aggressive collaboration to develop an even superior tubeset for the second generation C50, and the result was a high-modulus tubeset of such quality that it shaved a full quarter-pound off of what was already a gloriously lightweight bike. This superlight C50 is the same frame put to the test as the day-in, day-out weapon of some of the biggest powerhouses of the professional peloton -- including Rabobank, Ceramica Panaria-Navigare, and Milram (featuring sprinters no less fearsome than Erik Zabel and Alessandro Petacchi).

The strength of Colnago's new high modulus carbon is so advanced over the carbon of the past that Colnago can now manufacture tubing with less material than ever before while maintaining the same standards of durability and stiffness. Less material per tube means lighter tubing without any sacrifice in ride quality. And the strength of this new high modulus carbon is so great, in fact, that the tubes require less overlap with their lugs. This allows Colnago to use shorter lugs, which further decreases the weight of the frame. The net effect of these factors -- less material to the tubes, shorter lugs -- is that the C50 is now nearly a half-pound lighter than the first generation C50. We conducted our own WBA-like weigh-in here at Competitive Cyclist, and found the following to be the case: A second-generation 57cm frame weighed in at 2.5lbs (1135g) on our scale. A 57cm from the first generation weighed in at 2.9lbs (1317g).

Another new innovation is the use of a "Twill Weave" finish on the frame. Rather than making use of black paint to hide the cosmetic imperfections that naturally occur in virtually all grades of carbon fiber, the "latticework" of Colnago's carbon is all but flawless, and Colnago can thereby use less paint and more clearcoat to show off this beautiful weave.

The C50 is available in 1cm increments from 51cm-65cm, as well as 6 sloping sizes. It will be available in 3 stock colors: PR00, STSL, and ST02. It comes with a 1-1/8" Colnago C75 Carbon monocoque fork and requires the use of a 28.0mm seatpost, a braze-on front derailleur, and a 1-1/8" threadless headset.

2008 Colnago C50 Pricing
	Frameset	Record / Chorus	Centaur / Dura Ace	Ultegra SL / Red	Force / Rival
C50	$4429	7363 / 6956	6361 / 7107	6269 / 7098	6473 / 6095

2008 Colnago C50 Geometry

Seat Tube (c-t)	Seat Tube (c-c)	Top Tube	Seat Angle	Head Tube Length	Setback	Chainstay	Head Tube Angle
51.0	49.0	52.7	75.0	10.6	12.7	39.7	71.1
52.0	50.0	53.1	74.5	11.4	13.3	40.1	71.1
53.0	51.0	53.5	74	12.3	14.0	40.2	71.1
54.0	52.0	54.0	74	13.2	14.3	40.2	71.5
55.0	53.0	54.3	74	14.4	14.6	40.2	71.7
56.0	54.0	55.0	73.5	15.0	15.3	40.5	71.8
57.0	55.0	55.6	73	15.8	16.1	40.7	71.8
58.0	56.0	56.3	73	16.5	16.4	40.7	72.2
59.0	57.0	56.9	73	17.3	16.7	40.9	72.8
60.0	57.1	57.7	73	17.3	16.7	40.9	73.3
61.0 Freuler	58.2	58.2	73	18.3	17.0	40.9	73.3
62.0 Freuler	58.2	58.5	73	18.5	17.0	41.1	73.4
63.0 Freuler	58.2	58.7	73	19.5	17.0	41.1	73.4
64.0 Freuler	58.2	59.0	73	20.3	17.0	41.3	73.4
65.0 Freuler	60.0	59.2	73	21.3	17.4	41.3	73.5

2008 Colnago Compact Geometry: C50, Extreme-C

Seat Tube (c-t)	Seat Tube (c-c)	Effective Seat Tube (c-c)	Effective Top Tube	Seat Angle	Head Tube Length	Setback	Chainstay
45.0 Sloping	42.5	47.0	51.8	75.3	10.8	10.8	39.9
48.0 Sloping	45.5	50.0	53.1	74.3	11.5	11.5	40.0
50.0 Sloping	47.5	52.0	54.0	74.0	13.3	13.3	40.2
52.0 Sloping	49.5	54.0	55.0	73.3	15.8	15.3	40.5
54.0 Sloping	51.5	56.0	56.3	73.0	16.5	16.4	40.5
57.0 Sloping	54.5	58.2	58.2	73.0	18.3	17.0	40.9