Ed Granger is correct in what he has written. Masi, Colnago and then DeR osa all earned their reputations by first being grunts supporting the pro teams during the season. This wasn't an easy life. A first hand ac count of how hard this is is detailed in Bicycle Mechanics by Steve Snowl ing. When these families (Masi and his son, DeRosa, Colnago and his br other) where wrenching for the teams, the other half of the family was back home trying to make a living in the family business.... ask any frame bu ilder if he could support three kids on his salary.
Brian Van Baush
Anacortes WA USA.
> From: edvintage63@aol.com <edvintage63@aol.com>
\r?\n> Subject: [CR]Confente (Ed Granger)
\r?\n> To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
\r?\n> Date: Wednesday, December 31, 2008, 2:42 PM
\r?\n> "As Fred said, the path to fame is often an association
\r?\n> with a
\r?\n> famous racer. After all, three of the biggest name italian
\r?\n> builders,
\r?\n> Masi, DeRosa and Colnago all supposedly built frames for
\r?\n> Eddy Merckx at
\r?\n> one time or another. A hundred other Italian builders
\r?\n> could probably
\r?\n> have
\r?\n> supplied Eddy with equally
\r?\n> good frames, but those three had the contacts to actually
\r?\n> meet Eddy
\r?\n> and
\r?\n> establish a relationship with him."
\r?\n>
\r?\n> ____________________________________________
\r?\n>
\r?\n> Not so fast. Many of the now-revered Italian frame builders
\r?\n> were ace
\r?\n> mechanics, and that's how they built their reputations.
\r?\n> Their frame
\r?\n> building activities were almost an extension of those
\r?\n> skills. In those
\r?\n> days, an ace mechanic was of as much value to a top racer
\r?\n> as a good
\r?\n> frame - and more rare. Those guys didn't seek out
\r?\n> racers to promote
\r?\n> their products, they were sought out by the top racers
\r?\n> because of their
\r?\n> abilities. Let's keep the cart before the horse. They
\r?\n> also sought to
\r?\n> improve on the tradition they were handed, which can't
\r?\n> be said of every
\r?\n> village frame builder. While Ernesto may have hyped himself
\r?\n> endlessly,
\r?\n> I think he does deserve some credit for encouraging the
\r?\n> trend toward
\r?\n> smaller, stiffer frames and longer seatposts and stems.
\r?\n> Just to cite
\r?\n> one example. The marketing piece really kicks in once they
\r?\n> were
\r?\n> building for the stars and saw the opportunity to get out
\r?\n> of the
\r?\n> smelly, dirty back room where the bikes were built and put
\r?\n> on a suit
\r?\n> and tie. That made you a businessman and respectable in
\r?\n> wider circles.
\r?\n> The exception is Ugo De Rosa, who seems uncomfortable as a
\r?\n> promoter and
\r?\n> apparently still quite comfortable with tools in his hands.
\r?\n> They all,
\r?\n> in one way or another, had to be good communicators on some
\r?\n> level. The
\r?\n> best of them also found ways, with slips, sure, to build
\r?\n> more frames
\r?\n> while maintaining quality - something beyond the abilities
\r?\n> of plenty of
\r?\n> small-timers. They understood how to instruct and oversee
\r?\n> the work of
\r?\n> others. So there may be a little more to the reputations of
\r?\n> some of the
\r?\n> guys who "made it big" than mere luck and a
\r?\n> penchant for self promotion.
\r?\n>
\r?\n> Ed Granger
\r?\n> Lancaster, Pennsylvania, USA