Here here Chuck!
I was just about to chime in with what a PITA washers are when building wheels. Let alone taking them apart. And inherently weaker than a ferruled rim.
Chuck's comment is exactly right that no one replaced that first set of Martanos with another in the 1970's. As far as I'm concerned Fiammes another ferruled rimare appropriate and an upgrade unless you strive for an "as it came out of the box" thing.
Joe Bender-Zanoni
Great Notch, NJ
> "C. Andrews" wrote:
> >
> > I've been informed by a Masi maven that the bowtie rims
> > showed up as OEM equipment on Masi GCs before 1975.
> >
> > Works for me. Chris got the right rims for the job (I was
> > informed that his frame is 1975)...and the bowtie rims are
> > somewhat easier to find than the pyramid rims, the
> > pyramid-sticker-rims are very difficult to come by, in my
> > experience.. it also means I can build up some wheels with
> > the bowtie rims I have and put them on one of these Masis
> > hanging around here..
> >
> > Charles Andrews
> > SoCal
>
>
> A few points:
>
> The "pyramid-sticker" is more accurately described as a "wing-sticker"
> as the design is an Art Deco representation of wings.
>
> The wing-sticker precedes the bowtie-sticker; they are different decades
> from a graphic design standpoint.
>
> Martano rims with the separate steel washers were antiquated by the 70s
> when compared to other Italian and French rims using ferrules (shaped
> like thimbles) for the spoke holes, the ferrule being held by the inner
> and outer walls of the rim.
>
> I think Masi got a "deal" on the Martanos since they weren't state of
> the art and probably not selling well by the 1970s.
>
> If you bent them (and I bent them on my Champagne '75 GC when the bike
> was new) you didn't bother replacing them with more Martanos, THAT'S FOR
SURE!!!
>
> Chuck Schmidt
> South Pasadena, Southern California
>
> .