I didn't this was even in contention anymore. Even here. Actually the recent book on Peugeot cycles (Peugeot et le Cyclisme, Lucien Hilger) has several excellent photos of the Masi machines custom made for both Simpson and Merckx for the 1967 season. One is a 1967 advertisement photo showing Ferdinand Bracke (on a standard PX-10) and Merckx on his Masi. This example has a proper Peugeot headbadge, high flange Normandy style hubs and Simplex skewers right down to the white rubber skewer covers, Mafac brakes and Simplex gears. It's a Masi frame with PX-10 bits and one presumes the team mechanics had some say in that! But on the page opposite is a colour photo of Merckx riding that year's Paris-Roubaix on a stock PX-10. In a magazine interview not too long ago, Merckx credited Simpson with teaching him the finer points of descents so it seems they were reasonably close team mates so it's not surprising they both settled for Masi for some, but certainly not all, of their final season races with Peugeot-BP. So yes, Simpson died riding an Italian bike. Make what you will about that.
Peter Kohler
Washington DC USA