Re: [CR] Ssssspeedster's Masi & Proper Twin Plate Resto

(Example: Production Builders)

Date: Mon, 12 Dec 2005 14:19:48 -0800 (PST)
From: "David Patrick" <patrick-ajdb@sbcglobal.net>
Subject: Re: [CR] Ssssspeedster's Masi & Proper Twin Plate Resto
To: gpvb1@comcast.net, classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
In-Reply-To: <121220052150.4324.439DF0C20003874D000010E42200760180CE0D909F09@comcast.net>


Well, if you're going this route, I'd say your Masi will be a shoo-in to win "Best Italian Restoration" at next year's Cirque. Of course, my comments are based on you getting the stem mess straightened out by then...

Dave Patrick Chelsea, Michigan

gpvb1@comcast.net wrote: My 11-74 Alberto B60 GC is just a frameset at this point. I might be willing to consider any nice, complete, period-correct Favorit gruppos that I could buy to build it up.... :-)

Will I still need the panto'ed TTT parts as well? Or are there Masi-panto'ed Czech bars and stems out there? Talk about rare! Oh baby!

Gregorio Parkerini* Ann Arbor, Michigan

* What's all this "-ini" stuff, anyways? Refund? Refund...?

Date: Mon, 12 Dec 2005 09:56:37 -0800 (PST) From: David Patrick

To: BobHoveyGa@aol.com, classicrendezvous@bikelist.org Subject: Re: [CR]Ssssspeedster's Masi & Proper Twin Plate Resto

Bob,

I was hoping for a yes or no answer, but I gladly take what your reply and I appreciate your elaboration on this issue. Thank you. My original reply was based on frustration in seeing, within the CR list, certain components becoming labeled as "the correct item and the only correct item" on a certain bike/frame. At least this is my opinion of what I've been seeing and I've received many emails off-list that agree with my take on the situation. But hey, a healthy debate occured that delved into this issue and that's what I like to see.

Now, I think I'm going to build my Masi GC w/ period Simplex and Stronglight parts.........

Dave Patrick Chelsea, Michigan

BobHoveyGa@aol.com wrote:

In a message dated 12/12/05 12:13:28 PM, patrick-ajdb@sbcglobal.net writes:

So Bob, is it your contention that proper twin-plate Masi restoration requires engraved Masi 3t bars? I guess that's were this started off, so what's your take?

Dave Patrick

Chelsea, Michigan

Well, as I said, I was probably a bit hasty in my use of the words "proper restoration" which one could construe to define the one and only way. I really didn't mean that, perhaps a better term would have been "complete factory restoration" or perhaps "reconstruction of a complete bike as produced by the Vigorelli shop."

Since no production records seem to have survived, I guess we'll never know what percentage of Alberto's 74 bikes were complete or frameset only. My own opinion is based on shop photos from the period or close to the period, as well as nearly complete unrestored examples that have surfaced, some of which have made their way over to the US. A particularly fine example is here:

http://www.theracingbicycle.com/Masi_1974.html

Another is at Speedbicycles.com (the site is built with frames so you'll have to navigate to it manually.. it's in the Museum section).

In both cases, you can see that Alberto lavished a significant amount of care on these bikes... in addition to the special components, you can see the dabs of yellow paint that have been applied to cable ends and the bolt ends of the brakes and cable clamps. Several other bikes like this have surfaced so I think it would be safe to assume that this is not a "bike show" configuration.

As for a person who is embarking on a restoration, beginning with a frameset or complete bike with a mishmash of components that postdate the frame, I believe that his benchmark is most often the complete bike as produced by the manufacturer, using components that the builder selected. It was in this light that I made my original statement... that the bike in question might be a good buy as a restoration project since it had a set of these increasingly hard to find bars that Alberto equipped the complete bikes with. I did not mean to imply that there is anything at all wrong with a 1974 Italian GC that does NOT have these bars... it could very well have been built up that way from a bare frame by an original owner and there's absolutely nothing wrong with keeping it that way, or in emulating such a build in a later restoration.

Bob Hovey
Columbus GA