If you're new to the channel, this is how you can interpret the grading system of carbon fiber bikes: Ridiculous/unbelievable (from Cervelo S5) - catastrophic failure imminent. Something will give sooner than later. Check regularly for safety. A bit of a concern - Potential for damage. Keep an eye on it. Less than ideal - Part may self-destruct in an accident or bike may survive for 20 years with careful use. Roll the dice. Looks OK - Appears poor, but actually is not a problem Looks pretty good - not visually or structurally a problem No issues/looks good - safe. ;)

I would imagine no brands would get a pass it seems. Buy what makes you happy. I have had a C60 for 5 seasons and almost 35,000km and still perfect...not even a creak. Will buy a Colnago again. Great video.

Luescher Teknik you should manufacture frames for road and MTB, I'd definitely buy one even if it was a premium price

Really interesting! As a Colnago (EPS) user I've eagerly waited for this. The result was as expected (ie not really better or much worse than anyone else), but not as I hoped. The product is helped by having the extra material and the simpler design, which makes defects less of a concern that it otherwise would be. However bonding should have been better, tubing inspection should have been better, and lug quality should have been better, so even if not surprising, it's still a disappointment.

Superb videos, I appreciate the lengthy discussion and thorough analysis

Taking into consideration the price of a Colnago we can assume that this frame was cut because a smuggler put cocaine in the top tube and it was cut open by customs inspectors.

That beeping in the background had me checking every electronic device within a range of 10 meters, but I never thought to pause the video.

Thanks so much for your detailed research&good observations to help people considering buying a Colnago carbon frame.I have a steel masterlight 26 years old&have been very satisfied with Colnago.My fork is a force carbon one&is 19 years old still in good condition.Thanks again,Mel

It would be both enlightening and entertaining to hear a response from the manufacturer's engineers.

When you're paying over $10 for a bike like this, it should be perfect, not just pretty good.

Thanks for this, and a happy new year to you! :-)

At first glance it looks very clean. Happy new year Raoul👍

Raoul, Thanks for this fascinating video. C60 looks better than the C50, but not enough to consider owning.

Great to see this - as some other posters have said, not brilliant but better than lots of the frames that have been cut up. Having recently purchased a C64, I'm curious as to whether is would perform better, though I suspect not. That said, I've had numerous carbon Colnagos and none have ever failed either in my hands or those of the riders I've sold them on to.

Excellent presentation, thanks mate! I've ridden and raced Colnagos for 20 years ( including most of the C series - no failures), so was particularly interested. Certainly an improvement over the C50 you examined (which I used to race) - just shows the benefit of advances in construction techniques and QC in 10 years. Some flaws, but pretty good and better than most, apart form those seat stay junctions. Lug-lug construction certainly has its benefits. Certain things like the BB, head-tube insert, fibre reinforced bosses makes a big difference in ownership: quality touches. I rated my C60, it took a beating and rode very well at speed, but was very much the pure race bike - stiff and lively (unlike the C50). I'd liken it to a Ducati superbike - great at 10/10ths, but not a bike I'd recommend for wealthy beginners - way more steady and comfortable bikes out there (including most American race bikes). Currently building up a C64, so let's hope they're even better again. That said, I race on a Giant TCR SL now... the C series can't compete on weight for racing, but remains a fine bike for fast, experienced riders wanting an Italian-made bike that is beautiful and handles superbly.

Merry Christmas!

There´s also a nice void in the BB lug to the seattube joint, facing rearwards, almost to the lip. Seen at around 7.00 in. Rgr

Good informative video, thanks

Can we crowdsource Rauul a better Mic?

Hey man I love your videos! I think you should review a Cube bike since it's a new brand in the world tour. Cheers

So far, no issues with my C60 and V2r

It sounds like whoever the third party is supplying the tubing did generally a good job, and then whoever Colnago contracted to join them with lugs (inhouse?) didn't really give a shit.

Thanks for doing this video, very informative. I wonder how many Colnago tube and lug frames have failed at the lug interface? I've not heard of this being a problem and they've been using that technology for decades.When making a tube and lug frame it's assembled by hand and like all things that are man made it's going to have well made ones and ones that didn't get the time and attention it deserved. My conclusion is that the frame is probably better than the mass produced monocoque frames coming out of China but not as good as Look that use a different carbon fibre and resin technology.

Thank you for a great presentation

Is there a ranking table somewhere in terms of quality for the frames that have been cut? I think that the French brands (Look, Time) ranked pretty well, while Cervelo wasn’t. Would be great to have a summary table.

Thanks for great video ! In your opinion, how likely is C60/64 to fail catastrophically compared to other high-end frames? (S-works tarmac, dogma f10, etc.)

As a C60 owner I was desperate to see this video! It’s pretty much as I expected. I’ve never thought the C60 rode particularly special anyway and though I don’t think I’d ever sell it, I won’t really ride it again as I’ve had a couple of ‘modern’ bikes that ride soooo much better. Regarding the head tube voids-aren’t these voids inside the manufacturing of the lug itself rather than a gap between lug and tube?

Do you have any experience with the Wilier Triestina carbon bikes? I am considering to buy a Wilier Filante SLR "Aero" road bike, though there is not much "unpaid" review on the internet... Thanks and cheers!

Raoul loving the content, but I do get slightly anxious when I watch:-). Would you say in general standards are high enough so that the average person should 'not' worry about their bike failing or indeed the quality of it?

What is that incessant beeping in the background?

I think that theese voids between the joints and the tubes are not an issue...I mean, they're not voids into to the fibre texture, the joint is not gonna break because of a bit of air between the joint and the tube (like the vertical one at 18:32), because they are two separate components. Actually monocoque frames seem more critical to me, where a crack on a single tube could run hypothetically on the whole structure. I am not an engineer nor an expert, it's just my thought.

My favorite channel ;) Santa cruz plzz

You should do one for SL7s like this.

Still waiting to see the promised De Rosa cut up I enquired about earlier this year. Any chance in the near future? Great show , always look forward to watching. Happy new year.

I think the top tubes do not need a lot of stiffness or strength in normal riding mode, actually having them not too stiff improves the bike comfort, so they tend to be pretty thin, and so they are closer to their strength limit compared to other areas that need much higher stiffness like the down tube or the seat tube that is dimensioned for holding the seat post. In addition, in quite a few crash people will fall with their ass smack in the middle of the top tube and there is definitely not enough strength for that (I am not even mentioning people still clamping the top tube in a bike stand from time to time, it should not happen (like driving into a garage with bike of the roof rack of the car) but I assume it still does from time to time...

i do love to see you cut up a 787! :)

I’m guessing black/naked one was crashed in a race and someone else landed on top of it.

Raoul, I have to say that your comment about QC speaks volumes. I worked as a mechanic in a shop from 1980-1995, just as carbon was starting to come out. Then I went into the semi-conductor industry where I did equipment maintenance on both Hi-vacuum plasma etcher and also Chemical Mechanical Planarization tools. In the semi conductor industry QC is all about the name of the game. It is quite sad that still in the bike industry that there seems to be little QC for the frame manufacturers. People think that their fancy named carbon wonder bike is indestructible and the fact is that they are not. NO bike is no matter the material it is made of, just as you mentioned in a previous video on how metal bikes can fail. I remember being at a stage race in Telluride Colorado in the early 80's and there was a guy walking around with his Colango Master that had come apart during the criterium. On that bike both the top tube and the downtube had pulled out of their respective lugs on the head tube. The guy was pretty torn up in his face, and he was just walking the course like his prized possession had been destroyed. He was very lucky that he was not injured much worse or even killed, and this was a steel frame that had failed due to poor penetration of the brass during brazing. I know I have a picture of that somewhere too. Thank you for all that you do.

dziękuję.

I was told that handlebars swinging and hitting the top tube can damage the tube.

I’ve not understood if the voids are in the carbon structure or if it’s just some glue missing at the boundary between the tube and the junction ...

Looks to me (I'm not an expert) that the bonding between the lugs and the tubes sometimes have the voids - maybe not enough adhesive? Hmmm I wonder what my C64 looks like all cut up!

It is still amazes me that this is just fabric! carbon fiber, the promise of it's potential is still hard for me to understand , could this be done? with fabric silk, satin, leather, cotton etc. but they still have a long ways go with quality control.

I love the way Colnagos ride, can you say bb drop, but they have been doing carbon longer than almost everyone. At the prices they charge we should not see these issues

I think it’s better than most of the frames you cut off. Tubes are perfect and there are some voids here and there mostly in the lugs. Go and watch again the videos and come again to ridicule this frame. We’ve seen far more worse frames here so I think this frame goes to the top 5. Really I cannot understand some of the comments! There were voids to trek, look, cannondale... even giant! Why are you so unforgiving and give so much hate to colnago? FYI: I’m not a fanboy and I ride titanium frame

Any chance that the first frame is a Chinalgo knock-off? Please say yes.

time to hit that 1.5x playback speed baby!!

These frames are put together by hand so all those bonding joints are just too many area's with large potential for human error. Some of the bonds are perfect, some are not. There are probably a few frames out there which indeed are all perfectly bonded and maybe even some that are far worse than these two. The main problem that the worker does not see the end result from the inside either.

I like these videos but for me the delivery is far too slow. The information could be imparted in half the time. Maybe Luescher could have a couple of double espressos before starting in future!

One frame with a void in the headtube moulding and no issues, one without a void and a crack in the paint. Two possible conclusions to draw : A, an issue with the lug B, No issue with the lug and an issue with the paint. White paint that does seem to be more prone to cracking. Possibly due to the thickness required for acceptable coverage. A definitive conclusion can’t be drawn from this as the frame with the paint crack had a sound headtube moulding,while the one with a void the paint was good.The sanding through the paint exposed a sound surface therefore the problem was most likely the paint and the fact that the other frame had a void present had no such problems would seem to back this up. The issue here is as stated in the video, a conclusion cannot be drawn as stress analysis would be required to asses the stresses that the area is subjected to. It is entirely possible that the possibility of a void is designed into the lug.

I would note that the term, "less than ideal" is very poor as a descriptor. It insubstantial because no bike is ideal. Less than ideal also suffers from being generally considered sarcastic, or double-talk. It is too broad: too little cheese on your burger is "less than ideal" as is your car over the side of a cliff into a ravine. Terms like unacceptable, seriously defective/unacceptable, well below average/unacceptable, minimally acceptable, etc. are terms by which decisions can be made. "Less than ideal" is in contrast a euphemism for something left unsaid. If we can assume the speaker is an expert, descriptors should be clearly dispositive, neutral, or positive and thus not open to interpretation.

I wouldn't trade my 1996 Bianchi Ti Megatube for any carbon junk!

New meme "Your soul is as hollow as your bike"

Steel .. strong dependable, Aluminum.. strong dependable and lite, Titanium .. strong dependable and liter, Carbon fiber .. ???? Overpriced plastic with carbon fibers

Jesus... You pay 4000€ for the frame and you get this?!

I'm watching a deconstruct video of bikes from a brand I'll never be able to afford made out of a material I don't really care for. Thanks to quarantine this is my life now.

"Having a big crack on the head tube is a bit of a concern" LMAO

Would it be fair to say that in a carbon application the famed Colnago lugs are in fact a weakness? That seat tube void is pretty appalling.

So a void in the laminate? Avoid!

I wish more bike companies would make this kind of tube and lug frames. It looks good and it can't be much more expensive than the ubiquitous monocoque frame. But who am I kidding, most bike frames are made in few factories anyways.

I have a C60 and a C40 amongst other brands. Both ride well, were they worth rrp, no chance, but then what is? It's all marketing, PR, Sponsorship and just plain BS. Both ride well especially the C40 and I do prefer a lugged frame......they are probably all made in the Far East in any case lol. Most carbon frames are mass produced shite even paying top dollar.

I don't think there has ever been a frame without voids

If I pay $6,500 for some obsolete design I expect it to be made prefect compared to more modern designs that are hard to get right. This doesn't look good for Colnago, their lugged bikes are worse made than Specialized monocoque bikes and Specialized is cheaper.

Carbon bikes certainly aren't made to last 25 years minimum like steel frames. Typically I replaced my 4 carbon bikes after 2 to 3 years. My first bike was a mid rage ROSS steel that I rode for more than 22 years and when I pitched it in the bin it was still a perfectly good frame. My latest and last bike I will ever purchase is a handmade custom titanium bike from a builder here in the US. Live and learn. The bike industry has made enough money from me.

Сolnago VOiD 😅😅

so much for "made in italy"

What a stupid waste of time! Made the commercials seem exciting!

What astounds me watching this, is how polite you're being. This frame is absolute, absolute shit. 100% shit. And some dentist or lawyer paid a mint for it, convinced that they were buying "Italian quality". "Quality costs more, I wouldn't be caught dead on an Asian frame". What a joke. Give me an excellent, reasonably priced taiwanese frame over this crap any day of the week.

They’re no better (or worse) than any other brand. Hence, overpriced.

no news here, was known before that aside the hype, colnagos actually suck