Todd Teachout writes:
>Given this characterization it difficult to understand why the demand for a
70's era Masi appears to be significantly greater that that of 70's era Witcomb?
Todd;
The reasons are almost certainly more complicated than what I am about to describe, but all I can tell you is what I and my small circle of cycling bu ddies were thinking at the time. We were college kids and all of us were pretty broke... we took pride in the bikes we owned and rode the hell out of them , but whenever we were hanging out and the discussion turned to bicycles, our eyes developed a distant stare and we spoke less of the bikes we owned than of the ones we'd like to own.
There was a certain mystique in the Masi name because of the uncompromising standards Faliero held for many years... we heard he'd never built a second-tier bike, and the one model he did produce was a full-on race bike.. . never built any tourers, city bikes, or wannabe "race-look" bikes with cheaper tub ing. When you went to see Faliero, you basically had one choice to make, Strada o r Pista (well, you got to pick the color of course). The Carlsbad factory seemed to continue this philospohy... they produced one model, the Gran Criterium, and it's design never wavered significantly from Faliero's vision of a race bike.
When I began to take cycling seriously 35 years ago, Italian bikes in genera l were admired for their minimalist grace and utility. Among those of us who
lusted after an expensive race bike, this perception carried some serious weight. "The French make touring bikes with strange threadings, the Englis h make elaborate bikes with fancy lugs and the Italians make uncompromising no-nonsense race bikes." Our generalizations may have been oversimplified or flat-out mistaken, but that is the way we felt at the time. Looking at a H etchins or Condor in a magazine, we would marvel at it's beauty but when it came tim e to name a bike we would actually want to own and ride, the words were Cinell i, Masi, Colnago...
>Is it that Masi can be linked to Faliero and Eddy Merckx?
That was part of it too. Of course Eddy only rode Masi for a year or so an d then moved on to Colnago, Kessels and DeRosa. But still, the idea was that
when you bought a Masi you got not just a race bike, but a very exclusive almost "secret" bike with magical properties... Masi was a small boutique bu ilder whom racers contacted to purchase bikes (with their own money!) that they th en had painted and decaled in their team colors... how then, could they not be the best?
Bob Hovey
Columbus, GA