[CR]Re: Masi on Ebay.. Why, why?

(Example: Framebuilders:Rene Herse)

From: <BobHoveyGa@aol.com>
Date: Fri, 19 Mar 2004 15:09:59 EST
To: richardsachs@juno.com
cc: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
Subject: [CR]Re: Masi on Ebay.. Why, why?

In a message dated 3/19/04 1:03:51 PM, richardsachs@juno.com writes:
>the pieces you mentioned were of the era when builders began tapping
>into industry supplies from firms such as silva. those are catalog parts
>that were simply engraved. my intention in bringing this up was to note
>the
>special shaped and flattened chainstays, the sand-cast fisher and
>subsequent
>similarly shaped and cast flat crown, the nervex ref 32 lugs and their
>microfusione itlaliana cast parts, and "those types of things...".
>in case the post is lost, i was refering to masi usa's use of stock
>henry james lugs - tho with windows, cinelli semi-sloping mr crowns,
>and other details re geometry, as the tell-tale signs (to me) that the
>link with the prior iterations was lost.
>e-RICHIE
>chester, ct

OK, maybe I'm starting to catch on to what you intended in your original post. While I do agree in one respect, that there is an inherent charm to pressed lugs (and all that working with them entails), I don't necessarily feel that cast lugs are the first sign of impending doom, degradation or corruption when they are adopted by a manufacturer (not that you do either, it's just that I just hear cast lugs slammed more often than I think is fair). Cast lugs can still can be contoured, pierced, refined, thinned, whatever, so even though they may be in a more finished form out of the box, I think the opportunity for the frambuilder's hand to leave it's mark still remains (I daresay even lugs and dropouts as "finished" as those used by Nagasawa would look very different on a bike from another builder). What leaves a bad taste (for me) is when a builder uses the inherent 'presentability' of the cast lug as an excuse not to alter or refine them at all... but then that happened to a certain extent with pressed lugs too, didn't it, just not as often and seldom on high-end bikes?

As for the crowns, I don't find the semi-sloping crowns (with the traingular windows) that appeared on later Nuova Strada and Grans Corsa all that attractive, but I really do like the flatter 'crested' crowns on the 80's Gran Crits and Volumetricas (and heck, theyre almost flat, maybe five or seven degrees of slope... almost isn't fair to call 'em semi-sloping, how 'bout semi-flat?). Granted, they aren't as pretty as the old double plate crowns, but then, what is?

While the US Masi GC went thru many changes, and perhaps some of the charm of the original was lost, I don't think I could go so far as to say that their link with the prior iterations was lost (not completely anyway). As the times changed, they changed (and practically every other builder around them changed as well). But what I feel is most important is that they tried to remain true to their mission of building a nice-riding frame with some of the attention to detail usually associated with the custom (OK, made-to-measure...) builder, and at a fairly reasonable price.

Bob Hovey
Columbus, GA