Bryant,
The twin plate crown isn't a real good indicator of age of a California Masi. The serial number is a better gauge. The twin plate crowns are on earlier as opposed to later frames as a rule; but there were extra forks left around, I would imagine ones with real or real short steerers could show up on a frame for a longer period than the more common sizes. Forks were made in batches and probably 50 to 100 at a time so they could be sent off to the plater. The crowns were in stock as well. I suppose if someone wanted the twin plate crown in specific they would also have done it for them. We can consider the majority of twin plate forks built in Carlsbad to be made between late (probably Aug. or Sept.) 1973 to about mid 1974. They were being used here and there for a while after that.
It seems that the Italian frames from 1972 couild have either the actual twin plate crown or the sawcut type crown.
Brian Baylis La Mesa, CA
>
> With regard to the double plate crown, does the use of this crown in any way
> date the early Carlsbad Masi's?? Brian??
>
> I ask because I first remember seeing one on a Masi at Sea Schwinn Cyclery
> in Costa Mesa in either '71 or '72. Being a starving college student with a
> serious case of the bicycle Jones and desperate to find an upgrade from my
> Raleigh International to a 'real' road bike, I made the pilgrimage several
> times a week to push my nose against the glass and pester the manager to
> take the bike down off the wall so that I could examine every small detail
> as closely as possible.
>
> What I do remember is that there were not a whole lot of those double plates
> on road bikes and that they were also not around for very long. Is there a
> cut off year we can assign to that crown?? Anyone?
>
> -Bryant Bainbridge
>
> > From: BobHoveyGa@aol.com
> > Date: Fri, 20 Jun 2003 15:20:14 EDT
> > To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
> > Subject: [CR]Re: Confente Masi
> >
> >
> > In a message dated 6/20/03 3:03:06 PM, classicrendezvous-request@bikelist.org
> > writes:
> >
> >> I happened across a 70's vintage Masi on e-bay and the seller
> >> is claiming that the bike was sold to him as a Confente built Masi.
> >> I was just wondering if Brian Baylis or someone else might like
> >> to comment on this.
> >> I don't want to dredge up the entire "who REALLY built it" thread
> >> but this one begs the question.
> >>
> >> http://ebay.com/
> >
> >
> > I wondered about this one myself. There appears to be no serial number
> > (seller sent me a .jpg of the bottom bracket) and there are a few oddities.
> > It has
> > deep rear dropouts and a double plate fork crown, but it also has seat tube
> > bottle bosses and a braze-on front derailleur hanger (added later maybe, just
> > before the hideous repaint?). I'd like to know more about the bike... would
> > really like to examine it in person to see if there's a hint of the serial
> > number under the new paint.
> >
> > Bob Hovey
> > Columbus, GA