I thought we'd addressed this issue before, maybe a year ago, with it finally being established that these "Russian" Masi bikes were indeed built by Masi USA as a way to commerate the use of a similiar bike a year or two earlier by the Russsian team. As such, these USA Masi bikes were never ridden by a Russian team or used in any Olympics. It was a neat bit of marketing that seems to generate a lot of misinformation and/or confusion in later years.
Dave Patrick Chelsea, Michigan
-----Original Message----- From: classicrendezvous-bounces@bikelist.org [mailto:classicrendezvous-bounces@bikelist.org]On Behalf Of Bill Mattinson Sent: Monday, April 28, 2003 4:02 PM To: Steve Maas; classicrendezvous@bikelist.org Subject: RE: [CR]1984 Russian Masi?
Steve said:
I am also
> a little skeptical, so I wrote to the seller, asking how a guy in
> California happens to have a bike purchased for the 1984 Russian Olympic
> team. No response yet.
Didn't the Russians boycott the '84 Olympics? The original owner (Dave Walters) of the bike shop next door to my office here in Santa Rosa had one of these "Russian" '84 Olympics Masi 3V track bikes. I can't recall if he bought it from Masi or someone else or from a Russian but I know it was the real deal. Had Cyrillac Russian team decals on it. I might have bought it but it was a bit small for me.
Bill Mattinson
Sonoma County, CA