On Monday, Mar 7, 2005, at 10:17 US/Pacific, BobHoveyGa@aol.com wrote:
> Do you mean during the Carlsbad era, or overall?
I'm talking about the period of start-up when Faliero decided to set-up
stateside after he brought over the Italian builders to get the wheel
rolling.
> Eisentraut would certainly have been considered a professional builder
> of note before he worked for Masi.
Albert was a contract builder very late and wasn't ever a Masi employee.
> Joe Starck built a few thousand frames for Trek before he came to
Masi.
Joe didn't come into the picture until about '84-'85 after Mario had left. This is all information included in the Masi-Confente-Medici Story of the compiled information of list postings from a couple years
back. You remember the big Brian-Jim debates I'm sure.
> Well, Faliero's got his son to carry on his name and some would argue
> he's doing a better job of it than Haro.
Since we haven't actually seen what Haro has done let alone actually
ridden the bikes how can you say that? Now, what if the Haro bikes
turn out quite nicely and people actually use them to race on an win?
> But my "depression" is not caused specifically by either the US or
> Italian Masi but rather the bike industry in general. Faliero came
to
> this country and saw to it that the bikes that were built here met his
> standards of craftsmanship and his basic design philosophy (one tenet
> of which was never to make a "B" model, or "price-point" frame).
I'm not sure I see what you're saying about the bicycle industry. As someone who has worked in the industry for quite a while and is taking
a break from building a frame to write this email I can say not much has changed. I keep hearing about how the industry is going to hell-in-a-handbasket, but it's just now true. The products being produced by hand today are better most I've seen from years past. I'd
gladly take a modern Baylis over a U.S. Masi, or a modern Sachs over a
Witcomb USA, etc, etc. Production frames have always been production frames no matter where they're built. I see more folks being able to make a living in the industry than I have a in the past and this is a good thing. I'd say to folks who think the industry is going to hell,
quit your current jobs and go to work for the bicycle industry and try
to change things. It's the same as complaining about the government and not voting.
It's like my wife teaches her students, "Just because you don't like it
doesn't mean it's not art."
best,
Brandon"monkeyman"Ives
Coeur d'Alene, ID.