The Colnago Museum – mega gallery

<source media="(max-width: 320px)" srcset="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/21/2019/03/1393609404515-14uy3mszes8f3-19a60ff.jpg?quality=90&resize=160%2C208, https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/21/2019/03/1393609404515-14uy3mszes8f3-19a60ff.jpg?quality=45&resize=320%2C416 2x, https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/21/2019/03/1393609404515-14uy3mszes8f3-19a60ff.jpg?quality=45&resize=462%2C600 3x" type="image/jpeg"> <source media="(max-width: 375px)" srcset="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/21/2019/03/1393609404515-14uy3mszes8f3-19a60ff.jpg?quality=90&resize=190%2C247, https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/21/2019/03/1393609404515-14uy3mszes8f3-19a60ff.jpg?quality=45&resize=380%2C494 2x, https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/21/2019/03/1393609404515-14uy3mszes8f3-19a60ff.jpg?quality=45&resize=462%2C600 3x" type="image/jpeg"> <source media="(max-width: 425px)" srcset="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/21/2019/03/1393609404515-14uy3mszes8f3-19a60ff.jpg?quality=90&resize=215%2C279, https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/21/2019/03/1393609404515-14uy3mszes8f3-19a60ff.jpg?quality=45&resize=430%2C559 2x, https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/21/2019/03/1393609404515-14uy3mszes8f3-19a60ff.jpg?quality=45&resize=462%2C600 3x" type="image/jpeg"> <source media="(max-width: 992px)" srcset="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/21/2019/03/1393609404515-14uy3mszes8f3-19a60ff.jpg?quality=90&resize=136%2C176, https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/21/2019/03/1393609404515-14uy3mszes8f3-19a60ff.jpg?quality=45&resize=272%2C353 2x, https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/21/2019/03/1393609404515-14uy3mszes8f3-19a60ff.jpg?quality=45&resize=408%2C530 3x, https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/21/2019/03/1393609404515-14uy3mszes8f3-19a60ff.jpg?quality=45&resize=462%2C600 4x" type="image/jpeg"> <source media="(min-width: 993px)" srcset="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/21/2019/03/1393609404515-14uy3mszes8f3-19a60ff.jpg?quality=90&resize=155%2C201, https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/21/2019/03/1393609404515-14uy3mszes8f3-19a60ff.jpg?quality=45&resize=310%2C403 2x, https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/21/2019/03/1393609404515-14uy3mszes8f3-19a60ff.jpg?quality=45&resize=462%2C600 3x" type="image/jpeg"> <img class="wp-image-270093 size-portrait_thumbnail image-handler__image image-handler__image--aspect no-wrap js-gallery-grid-src-image" src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/21/2019/03/1393609404515-14uy3mszes8f3-19a60ff.jpg?quality=90&resize=461%2C600" width="556" height="723" data-crop-width="" data-crop-height="" alt="On the top floor of Colnago's headquarters, a museum houses dozens of historic bikes, including this 1980 Olympic champion track bike" title="1393609404515-14uy3mszes8f3-19a60ff" style="width: auto; height: 100%;"> On the top floor of Colnago’s headquarters, a museum houses dozens of historic bikes, including this 1980 Olympic champion track bike Ben Delaney/Future Publishing

For a relatively small family business, Colnago has a huge amount of history. Just across the street from where founder Ernesto Colnago has lived for years, Colnago’s factory and headquarters host a museum with machinery that has been under the ownership of everyone from Pope John Paul II to scores of world champions and victors of the world’s biggest races.

Wild-shaped prototypes that never saw the light of day sit next to production bikes that won Paris-Roubaix, still encrusted with the mud from the Hell of the North.

Among the many notable designs are not one but two distinct milestones in road hydraulics. Colnago was first to market with a fully hydraulic disc-brake road bike with electronic shifting , the C59 Disc, in 2012. ( BikeRadar took a test ride on an early prototype in April of 2012.) But Colnago’s first attempt at hydraulic braking came much earlier, in a collaboration with Ferrari in 1986.

Take a closer look at these bikes and many, many more in the photo gallery at above right.

Colnago hydraulic brake levers never made it to market — until the recent collaboration with formula: Ben Delaney/Future Publishing Colnago/Ferrari hydraulic brake levers, circa 1986