Breaking Away was on TV here yesterday morning, the network must have known it was going to pour rain all day!
I'm not from California, but I have visited there a lot. I love those Masi bikes, don't know why, but they do it for me in a big way.
Grant "refund!!?!?" McLean Toronto, Canada
Jerry Moos, Big Spring, TX wrote:
This is what I long ago concluded about Masi. It's appeal, at least in the mostly, though certainly not exclusively, American CR group, is tied very closely to the CA era and the many American framebuilders in some way connected to it.
I remember years ago, when I saw "Breaking Away" in its original release, I made disparging remarks to my wife about the Masi in the film as not being "a real" Italian bike as it was built in CA. Only when I joined CR circa 1996 did I come to realize this was precisely its charm. It seems mostly an American thing, I rarely hear our UK members going on about Masi, nor do the Japanese collectors seem to have a great interest.
But I still don't see why one needs an icon of American framebuilding to have an Italian pedigree, or even the Mario saga, which for all it's romatic qualities, is more Italian than American.
I find it a lot more logical to idolize the frames of Eisentraut, Gordon, Weigle, Sachs, Fattic, Assemacher, Della Santa, Cuevas and of course Baylis. These need no Italian name to command respect. In that respect I find it encouraging that the Della Santa frameset outed last week on eBay ended at $696, just $4 less than the Buy It Now price. That's still cheap compared to a new custom frameset, but high enough to indicate that the top American framebuilders are beginning to get the respect they deserve. And if a Baylis frame ever shows up on eBay, one can expect it to be bid a lot higher than that.
Regards,
Jerry Moos
Big Spring, TX