I received the following response from Tom Schwoegler, who was the tech adviser on the movie "Breaking Away." Thought the group might be interested:
"We purchased 2 Masi's from Faliero (or was it Alberto... the one who was building in California at the time). We also had 2 extra forks. One fork was bent to simulate the wreck when the pump is put in the front wheel. I bent the fork and it was not easy. We also had a Sears Free Spirit painted and hand decaled to look like a Masi. We had to hand-paint the decals because Masi would not give us an extra set. The Sears bike was mounted on a special platform for the close shots of Dennis Christopher. You can tell if he is on the Sear bike because it had Weinmann brakes and the brake cable came down on the opposite side when compared to the Campy brakes.
Both Masi's returned to California after the film was shot. Steve Tesich ended up with one of them (he was the one who insisted on getting Masi's for Dave and Colnago's for the Italian Team. We only had to buy 2 Colanago's as two of the guys who played those riders already had Colnago's (one of the guys was Christian VanDeVelde's dad, John). I still have one of those bikes, a gift from Director Peter Yates and the other was sold to a friend of mine in Indianapolis who later sold it. I also ended up with the bent fork from the "wrecked" Masi. --Tom Schwoegler"
Chuck Schmidt
South Pasadena, Southern California
http://www.velo-retro.com (New list of reprints, Campagnolo Timeline and T-shirts)