Dave,
I'm glad we can be honest and striaghtforward about these topics. Personally, I judge bikes on what I see and nothing else. I know what I'm looking at and I know what I like as well. Often I seperate the work itself from the person(s) who built the frame because I have a lot of respect for people, even if their work isn't neccessarily all it's cracked up to be.
This recent thread has enlightened me considerably, thanks to Steven Maaslands, Dirk, Bob Reid and others who have brought to our attention that my personal experiences growing up here in CA are quite different than those from other parts of the world, and even from other parts of the US. To be perfectly honest, it is liberating to know that Masi and Confente and pretty much everything else is very regional in terms of the "respect" each one gets. This is new to me, but I like it a LOT! My first taste of this came from Bob Reid who sold me my Flying Scot. A name I'd almost never heard, and when the frame arrived I was very pleasently surprised that the bike was in fact in every way an equal to a Masi of the period. From there I felt justified in feeling that a bike should be judged on it's merits alone; and that most of the "big names" are largely due to marketing, and our collective acceptance, or not, of those efforts.
The concept of "real" or "fake" Masi is still a little confusing to me. I never considered CA Masis to be "fake Masis", just different than Italian ones; and in all ways actually superior to (most) Italian frames of the same period; except for in value! Why is this? Mostly on account of most consumers don't have framebuilding knowledge and can't make real life judgements about the actual quality of the frame. Therefore, the Italian frame, by virtue of "mystique" wins out. I think we all have a touch (or more) of this somewhere within our interest in old bikes. It is emotional and through a certain amount of ignorence, not that that is a bad thing. It just is. Probably won't change either.
Got work to do now, I have to check out for a while. Masis, Confentes, Colnagos, Cinellis, Flying Scots, and a bunch of others awaiting my attention. I have to admit, I am a fortunate man to be swimming in this stuff on a daily basis. Great education on frames, quality, construction methods, and history. Wouldn't give it up even if another painter suggested I specialize in framebuilding. ;-) I specialize in what I do, regardless of what it is.
Brian Baylis La Mesa, CA Dave, I'm flattered to have a "secret admirer", but maybe you have a sister or something?
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