John Katsaras

COLNAGO SLX SPIRAL CONIC

Ernesto Colnago has been making frames for over 50 years and is arguably the most successful race bike builder in history. In his earlier years, Colnago was a racer and later served as a team mechanic for the famous Molteni team which included the legendary Eddy Merckx. Without exception, practically all of the great races have been won at one time or another on a Colnago. Colnago has made frames for all the great riders: Merckx, LeMond, Moser, Museeuw, Argentin, Saroni, Rominger, Bartoli and so on.

The SLX Spiral Conic bike pictured here is a late '80s early '90s example constructed using, not surprisingly, Columbus SLX tubing and put together using the distinctive Colnago lugs. Presently, it is setup as a time trial bike with Deda aero bars and a Giant aero carbon fork. When I get tired of time trials, the bike will revert back to its original road form.

TECHNICAL

Columbus SLX was the successor to Columbus SL, a chrome-molybbenum steel that used to be the flagship of the Columbus line of tubing for decades, similar to 531 for Reynolds. SLX is double butted tubing that is reinforced with five continuous spirals and is sometimes referred to as a "superbutted" tube set. The spirals were supposed to make the tubes sturdy and resistant to deformation in areas of major stress. The bike model, "Spiral Conic" derives its name from the tubeset used.