Jim;
According to Brian Baylis, when he returned from Thanksgiving weekend 1973, the first batch of 25 frames was just getting ready for paint. So the odds are, your #88 was built in early '74.
If you'll check the Masi Registry you'll see that most dates are year estima tes only, except in those cases where owners had sales receipts or whatever, then the date has a month also. The cutoff between '73 and '74 (which is q uite arbitrary), is frame 75. That's probably about the most the Carlsbad c rew could have come up with between Thanksgiving and Christmas (especially s ince Faliero Masi and Mario Confente took off early to go back to Italy for Christmas).
As for parts, Carlsbad bought a HUGE stock of 1973 parts that it took them y ears to deplete (they didn't know the bike boom was going to crash)... so un less the bike was special-ordered with SR, all Carlsbad Masis (and even some of the first Confentes in 1977) came with 1973 parts.
I'd like to change the name listing for your bike in the Registry if that's OK (I can list it anonymously if you wish). Could you confirm that it has W orld Championship seat tube bands and that the BB stamps I have listed are c orrect? When Norm advertised it on the list he said it was a 60cm but I don 't think he checked the BB... Masis were measured to the top of the point of the seat lug which made their size stamp about a cm larger than C-T. I ass umed the stamp was 61 because the bikes were built in batches of 25 (76-100 would probably all have been 61's). Photos would be nice too, especially if the paint is original... I am collecting an archive of original-paint photo s as a reference tool for those who are restoring thier bikes.
Best wishes,
Bob Hovey
Columbus, Georgia, USA
http://bhovey.com/
Date: Tue, 3 Jun 2008 18:38:58 -0700 From: "Jim Ready" <jimr@rfj.com> To: <NHell39123@aol.com>, <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org> Subject: [CR]1973 California Masi configuration Message-ID: <02fd01c8c5e3$c2a042f0$0a01a8c0@VALUED3253602F> References: <bbf.2ca99fc1.355a560e@aol.com> Content-Type: text/plain;format=flowed;charset="iso-8859-1"; reply-type=original MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Precedence: list Message: 15
Folks,
I need a little help in configuring a 1973 Masi. As some of you may recall recently Norm Hellman recently offered his 73 Masi and I just received it today. It's in very nice shape, It has nice patina, and I'm going to avoid my usual resoration mainia and build it up as found. So here's where I need the help. Would it have been built with 73 Campy components or earlier. I suppose it depends upon when in 73 it was made, and how much stock Masi California had on hand at the time. So does anyone have any information of what frame #88 from 1973 would have been built with.
Jim Ready Cupertino, California USA
PS Norm did a great job in carefully packing up the frame, I know it takes a
lot of work to do that.