Fake 'Nago road build

A guy came into work recently with a pretty nice road frame offering to sell it, it was my size so I grabbed it as it was a bargain. It has Colnago decals but under closer inspection it is apparent that they are aftermarket decals that have been lacquered over, either way it is a very nice frame that is incredibly light for an older steel frame set. I thought it would be nice to get some road miles in this summer so going to build it up as nice and cheap as I can, would like to know who actually built it. Whats the best way of finding out?

This is as it was when it came to the workshop, today was mostly spent clearing the warehouse. I was fortunate enough to find a unboxed Sora front and rear mech, I stuck them on today along with a lightish seat post I found lying around. I'll probably stick with down tube shifters for now due to cost, not checked what trade is for an STI group set yet though so that could change.

plenty of those guys floating about, especially the more classic ones where it was easier to copy the paint scheme like colnago supers and mexicos. died out for the most part in the dream era when paint work was hard and for a cheapy frames wasnt worth the time. im not sure where they come from for the most part but i recall somebody telling me that a lot were from asia even though that paint scheme looks too detailed to be chinese factory replica work. for the most part badly replicated however. not even sure what thats replicating but head badge from what i can see looks wrong in size and the club on the down tube which shouldnt be there, if replicating a master would have chromed lugs...

should still look pretty nice built up if all considering you didnt pay much for it. personally i would go with down tube shifters. the way i see it down tube shifters look retro whereas the likes of st2300's look like muck :)

In all fairness I pretty much paid nothing at all for it, I'd be interested to find out what the tubing is as it is very light. The fork also has carbon blades so I'm guessing it must be from a fairly decent frame building, all the finish and lug work is to a very high standard. Came in with a Dura Ace headset too, generally speaking you wouldn't put one on something rubbish.

I probably will stick with down tube shifters, there is a customers bike that they are considering scrapping at work which has a near mint set of Shimano 105 DT shifters. They would be ideal on this! I've set a budget of about £250 to complete the build, sounds like little but all parts will be either trade or free. Should turn out nice at that price.

it aint all that old either so. would be nice build for 250 quid. gotta love mechanic-ing. the just over the limit of 0.75 wear chain and cassette changes are an out and out win :)

welding and tubes look good, and like you say about DA h/set you aint gonna put in it on scrap.

lots of these frames were the likes of thron tubing, which comes up relatively lightweight for small cost, colnago even used it on some frames, c95 comes to mind..

Nothing beats a properly indexed drive chain with new cassette and chain, its amazing how people are blown away by the change it makes to their bikes when you replace those parts. That and inflating tyres to the correct pressure.....

My mate offered me these the other day, unsure about them though. They're a triple, I was hoping to have a compact chain set with 8spd cassette on the rear. I don't really know the advantages of a triple apart from the obvious being you get the extra small chainring, what are the pros and cons of triples?

Edit: forgot to mention the front mech is for a triple but my intention was to just run it with a compact.

isnt that crankset just a cheap (but good!) sugino with some colnago transfers?

sugino xd2/stronglight impact

They do say xd2 on the back, he got them cheap off ebay when trying to buy some RD2's. Would using them with just two chainrings be alright apart from aesthetics?

Each to their own, but this sort of thing just doesn't sit right with me.

I'd just buy this: http://www.lfgss.com/thread120090.html and would pretty much be it done

I was tempted to save for campag group set but given it's not actually an italian frame and it has a dura ace headset I was going to stick with Shimano, that and the mechs were free.

I've been making a load of progress, got hold of a Tiagra crankset from the workshop and some super cheap levers off ebay.

Spec so far is:
105 shifters
shimano RS500 wheel set
Sora Brakes
Tektro levers
Tiagra crankset
Sora mechs

Quite pleased with how it's shaping up, should be road worthy soon.

Bike is now complete, it's a fun ride. Currently using it for when I need to get to and from shoots and bad weather commuting with mudguards attached. Does the job and it cost bugger all, should hopefully enable me to get some more miles in when I'm feeling too lazy to ride fixed. It does need a longer stem but It's fine for now just using the hoods, will change it at some point.