Image courtesy of steel-vintage.com
The original Colnago Mexico bicycle was released in the early 1970’s to celebrate the 1972 Eddy Merckx world hour record, however this Colnago Mexico TT is a completely different bike.
The Colnago Mexico TT was designed in the late 1970’s and manufactured in very low numbers and is not mentioned in any of the Colnago catalogues I have. This model was ridden to victory in the 1980 Olympic games 100km team time trial by the USSR cycling team. However, I’m sure that was not the only performance advantage at their disposal..
Design features of a Colnago Mexico TT.
Just like modern bikes, the Colnago Mexico was designed with the same considerations. Maximum stiffness, minimum weight and aerodynamic features. Who would have thought that back in 1980 the design ethos for bikes was not that dissimilar to modern aero-road bikes. Interesting design features include;
- Oversized bottom bracket for extra stiffness at the cranks.
- Thin, lightweight frame tubes.
- Aero placement of shifters on top of the down-tube.
- Aero bladed forks and fork crown.
- Crimped (non-round) tubes for maximum stiffness to weight ratio.
- Internally routed brake and shift cables.
- Brake callipers fitted behind the fork and seat stays for aero benefits.
The Colnago Mexico TT is surprisingly rare, I only found it browsing the steel-vintage.com website and surprisingly it is currently advertised NOS 54cm model for sale (as of May 2020). I have no doubt that it would be a good investment for an avid collector.
The original Colnago Mexico featured all round tubes, but the Colnago Mexico TT is built with heavily crimped tubes. From what I can discern from the images, it looks like 4 offset crimps in each of the main tubes. These crimp locations are similar to the bikes that followed like the Colnago Nuovo Mexico (v2) and the Colnago Master.
All images courtesy of steel-vintage.com.
Rear brake routed internally through top tube 
Shift Levers mounted on top of the down tube 
Colnago marked on aero bladed forks. Reverse mounted front brake. Colnago logo on down tube lug. 
Colnago marked on drive side chain stay 
Flat metal tab for front derailleur 
Sturdy double-flange oversized bottom bracket. Colnago lettering on the left chain stay. 
Chain stay bridge. Club shape cut-out under bottom bracket. 
Colnago stamped on rear drop-out 
Rear brake mounted in reverse orientation 
Heavily crimped top tube and seat tube. Colnago marking on fluted top of seat stays. 
Small detail under the seat post clamp 
Rear brake cable internally routed in top tube
Colnago Literature.
The following websites have a large selection scanned Colnago literature including reviews, catalogues and brochures.
Article References.
I hope you found this article interesting. I have listed the following website pages as general references.
steel-vintage.com/colnago-mexico-tt-nos-road-bike-1981-detail
Disclaimer!
Please remember that this information is only to be used as a guide.
I consider myself an enthusiast, not an expert. The information I have presented in this article is based on my many hours of online research.
In addition, there will always be frames that don’t quite match the characteristics of a particular model as they could have been a custom build, prototype etc. Note: forks can also be swapped between different frames.
About Me.
I have been riding and working on my own bikes for many years now. I wanted to share my experiences, knowledge and research with others. My aim is to inspire people to get involved in all aspects of this amazing sport. Cheers.
Comments.
I welcome reader feedback in the comments section. Should you wish to suggest an amendment, please include a note advising the source of your information so that myself and other readers can ascertain the accuracy of your information. Note: Trolling or argumentative comments will be removed as they are counter-productive.
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