Re: [CR]Masi Serial # now Province/City code

Jerry,

I may have been at least one of the sources of that concept. I was there when Faliero was there. He was there for the first 6 months as the factory was being set up. He (and Mario and Roberto) went home for the winter holidays just after Christmas. I remember this because we had (I believe) the one and only "company" Christmas dinner right there in the factory. I suspect for the benifit and impression made on Faliero. There were not a lot of people working there at the time and it was a small intimate affair held in the workshop itself.

During this period I was not exactly taking notes nor asking the type of questions we all might as today if we had the chance to go back in time, but still many things were discussed (as well as we could through the translator and other methods) and what was meant by the "MC" was a question we all knew the answer to. It stood for "Masi California OR Masi Carlsbad", it didn't really matter. We also eventually found out that the Italian frames marked "V" were the bikes made in Mario's shop in Verona, which he explained to us himself. The bikes marked "M" were made in Milano. No one ever said who in Milano actually made the frames, but I got the impression that there were deffinitely more than one and possibly several builders there. So beyond that, the rest is guesswork. But if what Masi and Mario both told is is true, I would say that the letters refer to the subcontractor in one way or another, in the majority of cases.

Asking Alberto would indeed be interesting, but I personally would not take his statements to the bank. It wouldn't take much at all for Alberto not want to tell you that all the frames were made by numerous contractors. It's not the Itanian way, if you know what I mean.

I also know a VERY reliable source who is supremely knowledgable of some of these topics and is up to his eyeballs IN the industry and is connected DIRECTLY to Italy and one of the most famous frame companies in the world; knows an elderly Italian gentleman who was in fact a sub-contractor to both Faliero AND Colnago in "the old days". Unfortunately, he's reluctant to relay any information on his life and experiences. Crapola!

Honestly, until absolutely proven otherwise, I'm content on believing what Mario and Faliero personally told me way back in the day. Don't know how anyone is going to do much better than that.

Brian Baylis
La Mesa, CA
Been there, asked that.