In a message dated 12/11/05 12:06:13 PM, Dave Patrick writes:
> During Bob Hovey's reply to Steven Maasland, Bob made the comment: "..
the
> hardest part of doing a proper '74 twin plate restoration is finding those
> engraved Masi ttt bars..". Bob, I mean absolutely no disrespect, so
please
> don't misunderstand me, but this comment bugs the %$&# out of me. Why d
oes a
> properly restored twin-plate Masi GC need to have engraved Masi 3t bars to
be
> "correct" or properly restored? Is your comment based on the fact that
some
> twin-plate Masi frames were equipped with these bars when purchased as a
> complete bike?
>
OK Dave, perhaps I was a bit off in my choice of words... "proper" is probably inappropriate, sorry. Yes, the Masi stamped bars, Alberto engrave d stem, engraved seatpost, milled shift levers and chainring were pretty much standa rd for the '74 model year... I've seen more Italian '74's with these components
than without and some of the remaining bikes had one or two of these compone nts (with the remainder being newer replacements) so I'm assuming they came with
the full package originally. I'm still not caught up on my list reading an d all the comments that were posted after yours, but let me make clear that I was referring ONLY to Italian bikes, not Carlsbads.
> In putting forth these types of comments, some are loosing [sic] touch
> with the fact that these Masi GCs were bought as bare frames and built up
with
> period components of the time.
>
Wow, that's quite a generalization there. What's your evidence of this? On the contrary, I believe there is strong evidence to suggest that most Mas is of this time period were sold as built up bikes (true, many of the Masis shipped into the US might have been bare frames, but by 1974 this was no lon ger happening since Faliero had cut his deal with Roland Sahm which essentially cut off shipments of Italian Masis). One has only to look at photos of the ins ide of the Masi shop to see that for practically every completed frame hanging o n the long back wall, there was a set of wheels above it. This would sugges t that most of the bikes leaving the shop were probably like the ones John Barron had for sale a while back... wrapped in paper, nearly ready to ride . As for US production, I think Brian will probably tell you what percentage of early Carlsbads left the shop as complete bikes. Must have been pretty hig h, I believe he mentioned spending quite a bit of time building wheels that first
year.
> I'd say engraved Cinelli bars were the most commonly seen bar on any
> high-end Italian road bike from from the 1970s. Perhaps Bob's comment i
s based on
> the fact that engraved Masi 3t bars are very rare?
>
No, I was basing it on the fact that this was the component supplied on the 1974 model year Italian Masi Gran Criterium (other years they did indeed use
Cinelli). There was a similar, though smaller and more short-lived package
that came with some '74 US Masis (a "Faliero" engraved stem and Masi engrave d bars, both ttt). I'm not sure how long this lasted or how consistent the s upply was, I haven't seen them as often as the similar components on the Italian bikes.
Bob Hovey
Columbus, GA