I am wondering about the occasional bike with entirely wrong labels that
turn up on E-Bay occasionally. I have bought one myself, even after the
supposed maker had looked at the sale page. I have doubts that anything
like a mid level bike is faked to enhance a sale. The mid level CIOCC,
Atala (like mine was), Gios or other such bike more likely was wrongly
decaled for racing purposes...although just why is sometimes hard to
explain. At any rate a lot of bikes were raced on teams that were not built
by the team's sponsor, or so I have read. I have a sneaking hunch these
account for most of the "Fakes" we see on E-Bay or we we would be seeing the
Masi twin plates, the Confentes, the Herses faked...not a bike that probably
sold for much less than any of these when new.
The decals on the Atala that I bought had been on for a very long time...can
anyone tell if this is also true for these recent "Fakes" that have been
offered for sale? I am sure that the seller I bought my mis- labeled bike
from really thought it was a Matthews (quite a rare bike built by Matt
Assenmacher at the start of his career) and had no idea what an Atala might
have looked like.
Tom Sanders
Lansing, Mi USA