Hey gang,
Haven't keept up to date on this Masi thing; but having read the email t hat Mark posted that was written by Craig Fenstermaker from my shop VCS, I can see where some of this odd stuff came from. First of all, who is being quoted is Craig Fenstermaker, my long gons former start-up partner was. What Craig wrote is typical of the sorts of confusion that unsued when Craig undertook customer relations. He didn't know a whole lot abou t what we were doing and it took about a month or so to begin to see the dangerous pattern he was establishing. Also, that email was sent to Mar k upon first inspection of the bike, which came in in a condition I've n ever seen a bike in before. It turns out the obscured serial number was probably from a PREVIOUS down tube repair possibly. Maybe it was obscure d by the aftermatket full chrome job that had been done to the frame aft er the bunch of brazeons had been added; and then stripped of the full c hrome job which left behing a lot of copper plating.
I fixed this bike because the owner said they were going to keep it on a ccount of setimental reasons, which is why he was willing to spend the $ $ to make it right again. The "Mario" built part of this bike is that he brazed it, just like every standard Masi built in Carlsbad until 1975 o r so. The bike has Columbus chainstays NOT Columbus Record but probably SP, the opposite of Record) for some reason. Why that is becomes a legit imate question; perhaps one of rhe suggested employee bike or even a spe cial request from a regular customer is the answer. But the whole bike i s not Mario like some of the actual "special production" bikes. This is not one of them.
Brian Baylis
La Mesa, CA
The problems go on and on with a sales pitch that is overhyped and repla ces speculation with certainty. The seller states that is "undoubtably" a Confente built bike. It may or may not be a Confente built bike but i t is just plain untrue to say it is undoubtably a Confente built bike. Other things are garbled or wrong. The Columbus Record chainstays become "higher quality Campagnolo chainstays." Huh? The bike wasn't "rebuilt". It was more like salvaged. 1972? California Masi. So I guess this is th e earliest known California Masi.
Joe Bender-Zanoni
Great Notch,NJ
> I think I missed something else here as well - dosen't the
> original ebay post omit the info that the dowtube was replaced?
> Only in the posted question responses does this info come out.
> Did I miss something in the body of the original text on this? By
> not providing this information for all to see, it seems that
> travel at least started down that slippery slope of
> misrepresentation. I sure has heck would want to know up front if
> a frame I was buying had undergone major tube replacement.
> Hopefully Mark simply did not realize that such a repair
> constitutes much more than a typical extensive restoration.
>
> Mike Kone in Boulder CO
> -------------- Original message --------------
> From: "Steven L. Sheffield" <stevens@veloworks.com>
>
> >
> >
> >
> > Some people might assume that "built for a friend of mario's"
> means "built
> > by Mario for a friend" ...
> >
> > Even so, it's still speculation, since no one really knows the
> provenance of
> > the frame.
> >
> > However, I think that Mark was being perhaps overly
> enthusiastic, rather
> > than intentionally misleading; seizing and believing the
> possibility that
> > the frame may have been built by Mario as a fait accompli.
> >
> > I think that everyone involved is over-reacting.
> >
> > The facts are that it's a beautifully Brian Baylis-restored, but
> unusual
> > Masi ... this fact alone should be enough to intrigue some
> buyers.
> >
> > As to whether or not it was "undoubtedly built by Mario
> Confente" ... well,
> > only Mario knows for sure, and he's not around to clear things
> up.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > On 04/24/2006 05:44 AM, "Angel Garcia" wrote:
> >
> > > Am I missing something? The ebay listing says, "Confente Built
> Masi". I
> > > don't anything in Brian's note (attached by Mark Flaming) that
> quotes Brian
> > > as saying it was a Confente built Masi.
> >
> >
> >
> > >From Craig Fenstermaker to Mark Flaming:
> >
> > >> we have completed our initial inspection and have discovered;
> > >> 1) this is an unusual bike, it does not follow any s/n system
> that brian
> > >> or i am familiar with.
> > >> 2) it had columbus record chainstays instead of the standard
> chainstays.
> > >> 3) it has lead a hard life, lottsa rust and several dents /
> dings /
> > >> previous repairs
> > >>
> > >> 1 & 2 leads us to believe that this might have been a masi
> employee's
> > >> bike originally, or perhaps it was built for a friend of
> mario's.
> > >>
> >
> > --
> > Steven L. Sheffield
> > stevens at veloworks dot com
> > bellum pax est libertas servitus est ignoratio vis est
> > ess ay ell tea ell ay kay ee sea eye tee why you ti ay aitch
> > aitch tee tea pea colon [for word] slash [four ward] slash
> double-you
> > double-yew double-ewe dot flahute dot com [foreword] slash
> >
> >
> >
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