Updated: June 4/2020

Shown here is a 1995 Colnago C40 Mk1 painted in Lampre-Panaria team colors and outfitted with an 8 speed Campagnolo Record groupset. Although carbon fiber frames existed prior to the arrival of the C40 (e.g., Vitus, TVT), it was not until the Colnago C40 made its debut in 1993/1994 that they became widely accepted. With the carbon-lugged construction of the C40 — C stands for carbon and 40 representes the 40th year of Colnago as a business — Ernesto Colnago made carbon the material of choice, superceding steel and aluminum. With riders like Johan Museeuw, Andrea Tafi and Gianluca Bortolami aboard the C40 won 5 out of 6 editions of Paris-Roubaix between 1995 and 2000. In its various iterations the C40 was produced from 1994 until 2004. C40 Variants: (brown-snout.com/cycling/tech/_colnago-c40-family-tree.pdf) C40 VARIANTS – introduced 1993-94. made famous by guys like museeuw, ballerini, tafi, bartoli, dekker, and bettini. • mk-1 – "the original" full carbon tube-and-lugs with the traditional rear triangle and constant-diameter downtube. these are generally found with a steel colnago precisa fork, but can be found with a similar looking alloy colnago fork as were used in the carbitubo. these will also have traditional down-tube shifter bosses. • mk-2 – continue with the traditional rear triangle, but introduced a tapered/flared downtube to stiffen up the BB. the chainstays were also beefed up – moved from a slim round profile to a taller oval profile, again to stiffen the BB. these also saw the introduction of the threaded shifter bosses integrated to the lower HT lug. at some point they moved to the Star carbon fork as an option, not sure if that was a late mk-1 or early mk-2 change – but came with the introduction of a threadless setup. note that you will often find C40s with a threadless steel precisa, as well! eventually went exclusively to the Star fork. note: colnago made several small running changes from year to year for these first 2 variants and i'm not sure that there was a really hard/fast cut from mk-1 to mk-2...it was almost constant evolution. • mk-3 – introduced the wishbone B-stay seatstay design. the chainstay/BB lug area was slightly reshaped, possibly to improve BB stiffness. also, at some point along the mk3-4 evolution they moved from an aluminum BB insert to a much more durable titanium insert. • mk-4 – introduced the diamond-cutout HP-stay chainstay design and name-change to "C-40HP". you may also find some that have a Force fork instead of the Star. • mk-5 – went to 1.125" front-end spec and larger tube diameters in the main triangle...also known as the C50!!! THE BIKE Frame: Lugged carbon construction with Time carbon (shown) and Colnago Precisa forks. Original paint, no touch ups. Top and seat tubes: 56 cm c-to-c square. Brakes: Campagnolo Record calipers Handlebars: 3T Prima 220 Stem: 3T Titanium Pro (1" threaded) Headset: Chris King Shifters: Campagnolo 8 speed Ergopower Front Derailleur: Braze-on Campagnolo Record Rear Derailleur: Campagnolo Record Crankset: 170 mm Campagnolo Record with Exa-Drive chainrings. Bottom Bracket: Record cartridge type Pedals: Time Equipe Pro Magnesium Wheelset: Campagnolo Record hubs laced to 32 hole Fir Pulsar tubular rims Chain : Rohloff SLT 99 Freewheel: 8 speed Campagnolo cassette. Exa-Drive sprockets with nickel-chrome finish. Seatpost: ITM 28.0 mm aluminum seatpost with Colnago emblem silk screened. Saddle: Flyte Titanium