John,
FYI, just to give you a little insight into the kind of person Faliero was, I'll tell you this. Faliero would have no arguing the point of which is more important between glue on the rim and which way the label faces. First, let me describe the reaction you would get from Faliero uopn him hearing you try to argue this point. First, he would look you right in your face through his thick black rimmed glasses with an expression that clearly is saying " Whassa mattah, you? Are'a you'a nuts'a?" Then he would bend backwards and slap his forehead with one palm while the other was on his hip. He would roll his eyes back. Once the "show" was over, then he'd tell you you were crazy. End of discussion. Tire glue on a sidewall is VERY insightly and VERY unprofessional. This is a product. It has an image. You CANNOT send out a Masi with tires that were glued on by a monkey! No Way! You cannot remove it once it's on there because the solvent is very bad for the sidewall and the tube of the tire. Glue on the rim is dangerous! It's not difficult to do it correctly. It is one of the things I cherish most that I learned from Faliero. I hate glue on my tire ALSO! It looks like crap! I'm with the old man on this one. The label has to go where it goes. No one is going to care for crying out loud! I can see Faliero twitching in the grave right now, just as if he had just touched himself with some hot brazing rod!
Let's let him rest in peace!
Brian Baylis
La Mesa, CA
Faliero was old enough to be my grandfather when I worked there. He was
once of the coolest old characters I've ever met.
>
> Brian,
>
> Thanks for your email.
>
> It's so easy and temting to get sucked into that romantic Italian notion that
> things like that mattered, but alas, it isn't always so! One could certainly
> argue that in terms of *importance*, it's no more *important* that the sidewall
> be clean, than the labels be aligned, but knowing which of those things were
> truly practiced by guys like Faliero, (and then his apprentices like you) is
> good to know for practical reasons as well as for perspective.
>
> John
>
> Quoting Brian Baylis <rocklube@adnc.com>:
>
> > John,
> >
> > A little something about rims and labels. What matters when building a
> > wheel is where the first spoke is placed, and how the sequence proceeds
> > from there. The last thing one should be looking at is which way the
> > label is facing. Be mindful of an imperfect seem or something that
> > matters, but never mind the label. If all of the rim decals are put on
> > the same way, then the wheels I built at Masi all had labels facing one
> > direction anyway, since the reference point of the first spoke hole was
> > consistant. It doesn't even matter with the front wheel; if it needs to
> > go the other way, just turn the skewer around and you're set. For those
> > who assmeble their bikes for show, there is no harm in conforming to
> > these little fetishes if one wants to. I suppose that's part of the the
> > fun for some of us. At Masi it was a non-issue. Tire glue on a sidewall,
> > now THAT!! is an issue. There was a zero tolerence policy in that
> > respect.
> >
> > Brian Baylis
> > La Mesa, CA
> > >
> > > FYI, when I phrased the description of the tire labels and the rim
> > > labels, I
> > > wasn't making a judgment as to what was incorrect, or correct- in case
> > > you
> > > thought I did. Rather, I was trying to describe which way the label was
> > > read.
> > >
> > > In the printing business, (which I'm in for my day job) we talk about
> > > "right
> > > reading" or "it reads right" because we work with film negatives and
> > > sometimes
> > > the words are backwards which can be "correct", but not "right", if you
> > > know
> > > what I mean.
> > >
> > > So, I was in a dilemma as to how I would phrase it because if I said
> > > "right"
> > > someone might think I meant from the right side... and if I said
> > > "correct" they
> > > might think I was making a judgment as to what was correct for the era.
> > >
> > > Oh well,
> > >
> > > Thanks for listening to me.
> > >
> > > John Barron
> > > Minneapolis