In a message dated 4/2/2006 1:28:40 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, classicrendezvous-request@bikelist.org writes:
Dan and Barb Artley/Stein wrote:
> I just received the shipment of a Masi GC that I found in a bike shop in
> Lake Worth, a suburb of West Palm Beach in Florida. Its a beach bike w/
> rust, but good paint and decals and it was cheap and everything works,
[...]
> Bob Hovey's site indicates that it's probably built around 1974. Dale's
> site says that the frames were built with either Reynolds or Columbus
> and that's what I'm trying to find out about mine. There's no tubing
> sticker, but the fork legs seem to be more ovalized than I remember ever
> seeing Columbus tubes.
Look inside the bottom of the steer tube. If there's spiral rifling then it's Columbus.
-- John (john@os2.dhs.org) Appleton WI USA
You can also spot Reynolds and Columbus fork blades by their cross section near the crown. Columbus blades were noticeably fatter from the front, (28x19mm), Reynolds were narrower, (28.5 x 16.5). Reynolds introduced a "Continental Oval" around 1977 (27.5 x 20) that is harder to distinguish from Columbus, but the early blades usually stand out.
And of course if the bike is mixed tubing, steering tubes and fork blades won't be definitive, they'll only tell you what those particular tubes are.
Bob Hovey
Columbus, GA