Don;
That's not a badge, its a decal. And it's probably not original, but part of a later repaint. A Masi of this period definitely would have had a badge.
Not much chance that bike's a Masi...
For one thing, Brian Baylis has a vivid memory of Faliero looking at a thru-the-stay binder bolt on his Eisentraut and proclaiming it junk in no uncertain terms. So I doubt very seriously Il Maestro ever would have used such an arrangement on one of his own frames, even as an experiment. And why Faliero would experiment with a feature that screams "Cinelli" is another question one must ponder.
Other points:
The head lugs are too thick and the edges a bit rough for what was typical of Faliero's work. While Masis of the period were occasionally had some irregular brazing, the lug edges were almost always fairly thin.
The filing of the fillets at the dropouts does not appear crisp enough for Masi... note how rounded the edges are? This could be the result of aggressive sanding prior to being repainted, but I doubt it.
The deep step on the inside of the right chainstay at the dropout is not typical... Masi usually had a fairly flat transition here, or at most a tiny step.
Even on his mid-50's frames Masi used brazed-on chainstay cable stops rather than the clamp-on stop that appears on this frame.
Faliero began adding longer points to the seatlug (running down the front of the seat tube) quite early, around the late 50's. This frame has an extremely short point.
The mouth of the seatpost opening of the seatlug is saddle-shaped, a style seen only on the Nervex Dubois and Nervex Pro lugged Masis. A Masi with this style lugs would have had a flat opening. As with the head lugs, the thickness of the seat lug and the irregular contours are not typical Masi.
The bottom bracket does not appear to be a Fischer which Masi used almost exclusively. The small round holes on the lower DT tang and rear ST tang are not typical... Masi windows at these locations were ovals or triangles. It would also be very unusual to see a Masi BB of any era with the low level of finish this one has... deep file marks, very thick tangs.
The chainstay bridge has details not typical of Masi, both the splits in the flanged ends and the crimped hole for the fender bolt. Masi typically used a plain hole or a brazed on threaded grommet.
Bob Hovey Columbus, GA
PS: You can't attach pics to CR posts... the bikelist.org server strips all attachments. You'll need to post them to a free hosting service like Yahoo, or see if you can get some space on the bike photo site, Wooljersey.com (a very cool place indeed).
In a message dated 2/19/2006 3:39:07 A.M. Eastern Standard Time, Don writes:
The Mystery bike IS a MASI. On page 2 of the photos is a photo 018.jpg that shows the edge of a head badge and that badge IS off of a MASI. The edge of a Cinelli headbadge does not have the white fillagree or Vines on the edge of the head badge. I am sending a photo of a MASI head badge as an attachment. and a pic of the MASI fork crown. Both are from a bike recently sold on eBay. I am also sending the photo 018.jpg from the bike in question. Hope this helps.
-- Don Keenan Boulder, CO 303-530-4033
-------------- Original message ----------------------
From: "The Maaslands" <TheMaaslands@comcast.net>
> A friend of mine in Italy has asked for help in identifying a bike that
> he has. Can anybody be of any help?
>
> The fork crown looks like that on a Masi Special or Cinelli "B", the
> seatlug like that of a Cinelli, the derailleur hanger has the hole for
> the Campagnolo Sport... Could it be a Cinelli?
>
> You can see photos here:
> http://www.wooljersey.com/
>
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