Offered: beware, fake colnagos sold in london

Hi All,

I know this is a rather "contentious" thread to make a first post in, but I have known Niall at Retrospective for a few years (mainly due to scooters but now cycles too) and was in his shop last week when this discussion came up and he pointed out the thread to me.

He said he had been banned in the past but he did want to try to formally respond. I offered to post his reply as I know a few of you also know him and may be interested in what he had to say.

I trust this is OK and if not I trust you will not be backwards in letting me know!

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Hi LFGSS Members,

I am Niall McCart, the founder and owner of Retrospective Cycles and the buyer of all the cycles you see for sale on there. Firstly, thank you to those of you who have pointed this thread out to me in order to give me a chance to review the information and respond. I was certainly shocked and surprised (and a little confused too) by some of what I read.

As some of you have pointed out, I regularly visit Italy to buy vintage cycles that I find through a network of suppliers and collectors that I have built up over the past 15 or so years of buying cycles and scooters. I have always had a particular interest in Colnago’s and was very concerned to read the accusations being made on here without anyone ever raising the issue with me directly. For the record, I have never had a single customer come back to me to claim that their bike was anything other than 100% genuine or exactly as described. You can see from the very close up and detailed photographs I supply on my website, even for a £150 bike, I am not trying to hide anything at all from customers and they are fully able to see the quality of workmanship etc. on every bike I sell.

Also, if I have a bike that I know or suspect is of questionable provenance I will always point out my suspicions and state what I believe to be the truth about the bike (see http://www.retrospectivecycles.com/zeus-2000-52.5cms/ as an example of what is still a nice bike but perhaps not quite what it is labelled as). There are plenty of lovely bikes which have been dressed up to be something slightly different and a bit unique – nothing wrong with riding one of those if that’s what you like/want/can afford.

I can categorically state that I have NEVER knowingly bought or sold a “fake” bike and would never want to do so. I also suspect the word “fake” is being a bit mis-used in this discussion. A Colnago Sport is just a lower level Colnago as most of you appreciate – they are not “fakes”. If they ARE fakes, why would anyone be stupid enough to make a fake of an entry level bike – now that I do not really follow.

As much as this is a business, reputation and customer service always comes first and selling fake bikes is simply a sure fire way to destroy a reputation that has to be carefully built on trust with customers. As you know from the LFGSS forum, the community is small and well informed and it takes nothing other than one bad deal to destroy years of hard work and honesty. Clearly, there are collectors, owners and experts who have researched some areas more than anyone else (including myself) and, like all of you, I am happy to learn from them if it is going to help my customers and my business. However, there is also a lot of mis-information online and taking a single person’s view is also a quick way to spread misleading and damaging rumours.

I am intending on carrying out investigations into each of the apparently fake bikes mentioned in this thread and will remove/edit their descriptions if appropriate.

If any LFGSS members believe they have previously bought a fake from me, then please get in direct contact through my website and include some photographs and information as to why you think the bike may be a “fake” and I will then be happy to discuss with you further and investigate with my suppliers during my current trip to Italy (I am there right now and back in about a week).

I hope this has re-assured some of you as to my intentions when selling cycles and thank you to those of you who have supported me in these postings.

Regards,

Niall McCart

Retrospective Cycles

www.retrospectivecycles.com