Columbus
27 year old Angelo Luigi Colombo started Columbus Tubi in 1919 in Settala, Milan, Italy. By 1927, A. L. Colombo double butted tubing supplied many Italian bicycles, cars & airplanes. Antonio Colombo, the son of Angelo Luigi, split “Columbus” from A. L. Colombo in 1977 to concentrate solely on high-performance cycling tubing. In 1978 Columbus acquired Cinelli 1). In 2021 Columbus & Cinelli were acquired by Asobi Ventures of Texas and continue using the same factories and management.
Unlike Reynolds 531's manganese-molybdenum-carbon allow, all of Columbus' high end tubing was purely chromium-molybdenum steel, similar to Reynold's 501 up until the introduction of Columbus Nivacrom in 1990. Most Columbus tube brand names, such as SL, SP, SLX, etc. were all from Columbus Cyclex (cro-mo) steel with differing butting. In 1991 Columbus introduced Genius tubing, with differential butted shape butts, which have asymmetric butt tapers. Lower end, straight gauge tubing was available with cheaper steels, “for amateur and touring cyclists” 2).
Early MTB builders used a variety of home grown, lower quality tubing for the first mountain bikes. Tubing stickers are non-existent on early MTBs. Some notables before 1980:
- Joe Breeze bought his tubing from Pacific Tubing Co., who manufactured in Commerce, CA.
- Tom Ritchey initially used Columbus tubing before switching to mostly Tange in 1984 3).
- Lawwill-Knight: built their first Pro Cruisers from electrical conduit. Later they used 4130 CroMo.
The decal timeline is a bit uncertain as catalogs don't always match what was being shipped with tube sets. For example, Columbus SL did not show up in any 1990's catalogs, yet seem to be been used in some bike construction - perhaps because tube sets can sit on shelves indefinitely, without any brand expiration.
Resources:
Antonio Columbo, 2019, with a
1985 Ritchey Team Comp,
sporting a Columbus Off Road tube decal.
facebook
Columbus factory, 2014 cyclist.co.uk
Decal Timeline
| Maker | 1970 | 1980 | 1990 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | |
Columbus  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
|||||||||||||||||||||
| 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | |
| Maker | 1970 | 1980 | 1990 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Notes:
- Early rectangular decals did not say Columbus at the bottom.
- Decals after 1972 were a red dove on gold foil.
- Decals after 1975 had a white dove on a red background.
- Decals after 1978 had a fatter dove with no name.
- Decals after 1984 often had the tubeset name.
- Decals after 1988 put Columbus at the top with a funky background.
- Starting the 1990s, decals started using some English, as in “differential shape butted.”
- Decals after this use the ® symbol, funky backgrounds, Columbus at the top and white dove. Other colors and words will change depending on the tubset. Dating these requires a set of Columbus catalogs.
Columbus decals, 2024
columbus1919