David,
Way cool bike. I really love older Masi track bikes. It's one thing I don't have that I'm still searching for. Ideal would be an early 60's Nervex lugged Special track bike in about 50cm to 52cm center to top.
This bike is in excellent original condition. Very nicely made. I would like to see some detail shots of how the stays and dropouts come together and forkblade ends also. On a track frame that is where most of the work is done. It is often the signature of a framebuilder in the way they are finished and styled; pretty much the same way a handmade seat stay cap can help identify a framebuilder.
I can't read the 3 numbers on the steerer clearly. What are they? That date only appears on forks of Masis built between 1970 (the first year of the Gran Criterium) and 1972 as far as I've seen to date. There were no CA Masis yet, so all bikes with date stamped forks are Italian made of course. The last number on this fork appears to be "3". If that is correct then that fork was built in whatever month is indicated in 1973. I know it is 1970 or newer on account of the fluted seat stay caps and the presence of a date stamp. Peter Johnson has a Masi Special track bike from this period which I haven't seen yet (anxiously awaiting its appearance the Velo Rendzevous) which has the same seat tube bands as the first two years of Gran Criteriums (1970 and '71). So My guess is your frame is 1972 or '73. If the date on the fork is 5 73 as it sort of appears to me from the photo; then the fork was built and sent to the plater in May of 1973. From what I gather, forks were made in batches every month and sent to the plater for chrome crown and tips (for road bikes) and full chrome forks for track bikes. When the frames were done the plated forks were matched up with frames and sent to the painter.
Any idea how the frame ended up in your hands? Where was it originally purchased? Technically I think that frame could have been sold to a US customer direct from Italy on account of its a Masi Special. The liscencing of the Masi name in the US only included the Gran Criterium if I'm not mistaken. By the same token, the agreement could have included anything Masi made that had the name Masi on it.
Hope to see some dropout details. Thanks for putting up the photos for us to see. Now I want one worse than before.
Brian Baylis
La Mesa, CA
Gotta love those Masis.
>
> It must be a good couple of years since I started the search for parts for
> this Masi tack frame, and that was when I joined the list, I've since
> peppered the members with the occasional question, but I have, for the most
> part, sat back and enjoyed learning whenever I can from the discussions.
>
> For those of you interested in seeing my ~'71 Masi Pista Special frame, I've
> finally gotten the lead out and spent a while snapping some digital pics and
> posting them where they might be viewed (and possibly appreciated) by the
> world at large. They can be found at:
>
> http://photos.yahoo.com/
>
> As well there are some shots of the Iride (the name that no one had heard
> of) and a couple of Marinoni frames that I'll be sending to eBay (most
> likely) in the near future. If anyone has any interest at all in the
> Marinonis drop me a note off list and I can fill in the salient details.
>
> David
>
> David Bilenkey
> Bilenkey Industrial Design
> Ottawa, ON, Canada
> dbilenkey@sympatico.ca