--- Matthew Gorski <bikenut@verizon.net> wrote:
> I'm with Charles and Jay here-
>
> Italian or early Carlsbad examples are it...Period.
> Even Eisentrout and
> Lippy built Masi's are well into the twilight of the
> Carlsbad days.....
> Once you get to the San Marcos GC's you have, as
> Maxwell Smart would
> say,
> "missed by that much!"
Missed WHAT "by that much?"
Joe Starck Madison, Wisconsin
**********
Joe asks a fair question, and at the risk of evoking in the group the feeling of wanting to throw rotten vegetables, or worse, in my direction, for prolonging this thread beyond all reason..I'll say this much: for some of us (and I say that deliberately, I have no intention whatever of speaking for anyone other than myself and a few like-minded souls I know, or know of), the cast-lug Masis just do not have the same mojo as the pressed lug Masis.
I've owned, and ridden, a few cast-lug Masis, one from the early 80s--Joe might even have built it, I don't know for sure when it was made--both rode nicely, although the geometry of those later frames seems somewhat different from the 70s vintage frames...I've never been able to figure out when the geometry changed, if it did..the difference may be in my head, I never measured to make sure.
But, besides some change in the geometry of the 80s frames to make them a little quicker-handling--those cast-lug frames, and all others I've seen, just did not have the same charm for me as the pressed-lug frames. The pressed lug frames, at their best, appear more delicate because of all the hand-work on the lugs, and the overall feeling of a hand-made, one-off frame makes a mojo in the Italian and Carlsbad Masis that the later cast-lug frames, for all their tidiness, cannot match.
And the geometry of the older Masis gave them a plusher ride. The old geometry persisted in the cast-lug frames for awhile..how long I don't know, though.
It's the sheer, hand-wrought charm of the pressed-lug Masis that makes them a pleasure to own, ride, and admire.
Like I say, that's just me. Purely a matter of personal taste.
Charles Andrews SoCal
__________________________________
Concerning Carlos Kleiber one of the greatest of all post-war conductors:
The glamour often associated with a conductor's life held no appeal for him; he preferred to stay at home in Munich. He once told Leonard Bernstein: "I want to grow in a garden. I want to have the sun. I want to eat and drink and sleep and make love and that's it."