Hi gang,
I just wanted to report on a road trip JB (that would be Joe Bell) asked me if I wanted to ride along on. JB was the lucky winner of an eBay auction recently which resulted in the neccessity to travel to Huntington Beach, CA (where I grew up) to examine and take home the bike. I'll let JB tell about it if he wants to, but suffice it to say that he is in love! I suggested that we drop in on Mike Howard and Gian Simonetti of Simo Cycles since they are a few blocks away from the seller. As it turns out, the seller was a mechanic in Ralph Carnevales' bike shop as a youngster, and was the FIRST buyer of a Wizard frame in 1974. I think the frame cost $175 at the time. It was really odd to run into this guy after 25 years because all the way to the place I was saying to JB that for some reason the name sounded familiar. JB picked up his prize and we drove over to Simo Cycles (formerly Medici for those who don't know). It was good to see Mike and Gian after a 7 year drought. Before long, we persuaded Mike to show us what was upstairs in the "obsolete steel bike parts" section. I held in my hand for the very first time a raw genuine Nervex BB shell. I liberated a complete Nervex lugset w/BB shell, five sets of nice workable pressed steel lugs, four Masi sandcast Fisher crowns, and a few other goodies; all for a very reasonable price. JB ferreted out three "The Masi Story" posters from the early Carlsbad period. When I finally got a chance to look at the photos on this poster, I just about craped my pants. The photos were taken when there were only two American workers present; Ron Smith and Marcel Calborne. Shown in various pictures are Faliero Masi, Roger Smith (Masi Manager in shop apron standing at a wheel trueing fixture, it's a crack-up), Ron Smith (original painter), Marcel (original interpeter), Mario Confente, and Roberto (Marios' cohort from Italy). The Masi pictured in the photos is Italian built, since there were no CA Masis finished at that time. Pretty neat piece of memorabilia.
We had a great visit and both of us felt as if we had come away with some real cool stuff. Really worth taking the day off for, eh JB?
Brian Baylis I am now whole, for I posses a Nervex BB shell.