In a message dated 11/1/04 10:10:08 AM, classicrendezvous-request@bikelist.org writes:
> After looking at the pictures on e-bay, I am very very suprised!
> I would have expected the bike to have been in much better condition for
> such a selling price, despite the bike's obvious historical appeal and
> significance. I guess there is no underestimating the lengths (cost?)
> people will go to, to satisfy an obsession.
>
> Thank god I don't have the money...
>
> Peter
> Perth, Western Australia
>
> >David Bilenkey wrote:
> > >
> > > http://cgi.ebay.ca/
> > >
> > > US $3,320.10 (Approximately $4,042.72 CDN)!!
> > >
> > > Anyone care to comment? I figured this would fetch a fair dollar but I'm
> a
> > > tad surprised. Anyone else?
> > >
> > > Wow.
>
Everyone should take this with a grain of salt since you probably know how I feel about Masis... but I wrote several folks before the auction ended that I would not be surprised to see this bike go over $3,000. The reasoning is simple... a few months ago, we saw a partial Special (wheels, bars, stem, saddle... one year newer and in need of extensive restoration and missing many original parts) go for a little more than half what this one brought.
Second, the size... these troll bikes are rare, take it from me. Aside from putting blocks on the pedals, some of us shorter folks have few alternatives when it comes to pre-1970 bikes, so we save our money and jump like starving wolves when one finally shows up.
Third, it's unabashed originality (aside from the non-cable stop front der perhaps)... MANY folks out there would rather have a totally original bike in this kind of shape than a perfectly restored (but repainted) original. Whether that applies to the individual(s) who won the auction, I don't know, but if I had won this bike I would be going over it with a 000 brush and a magnifying glass, not sending it out for a repaint.
Finally, it is a Masi (oh, I hear the groans from the gallery). Mystique and hype aside, there really IS something special about these bikes. While other companies like Bianchi were also making street bikes, delivery trikes, and children's bikes, and smaller companies who catered to racers still compromised and made a "B" frame to grab a little extra business, Masi made only one. Masi romantics envision him welcoming us at his door with a tape measure and asking us just one question... strada or pista. Everything else was up to the Maestro, the Tailor. Yes, he used subcontractors, but when he did he held them to high standards for there really was only one way of doing things (search the archives for Brian's wonderful tale of building wheels for Faliero). And this bike probably predates the subs anyway... at least one eyewitness who visited his shop during this period remembers him hard at work. So there is no doubt that the bidders on this bike had at least a hope that this frame saw something of Faliero's hand.
Bob Hovey
Columbus, GA