Dirk replied:
"You're right. Here is the original auction:
http://ebay.com/
to my earlier post about a Masi Prestige apparently being offered a second time:
">In the following auction there is 1983 51 cm Masi Prestige being sold
>from Italy:
>
http://ebay.com/
>This bike looks close to mint. I was under the impression that this
same bike was offered previously and sold but am not able to find back
any
>record about it. This auction ends in about 21 hours."
Seeing that the first auction was 'won' by a fellow in China, it is quite conceivable that the seller was not able to ship the bike to China. If you look on the USPS website, it clearly states that one is not permitted to ship bikes to China due to import restrictions. I know this from personal experience when I went to ship a bike to a Japanese buyer who was working as a company director in China. It was simply not possible and I ended up shipping the bike to Japan instead. So I guess that the fact that the bike is being offered again should not raise any red flags.
Then Fred wrote about the Carré bikes:
"1) This lugless frame was built from Reynolds 753. It seems as though many 753 frames were brazed with brass filler rod, despite Reynolds' recommendations. But a fillet-brazed 753 frame seems really unusual (and impressive) to me.
2) The way "lugless construction" was expressed in French: "sans raccord". Is "raccord" the proper word for Lug in French?"
I too agree with you that a lugless 753 frame does seem to be quite unusual and impressive. The word 'Raccord' is indeed the French equivalent of 'Lug' or 'joint'. Sans raccord would translate as without lugs.
Steven Maasland
Moorestown, NJ
USA