ipmerkin@aol.com wrote:
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>Personally, I'm less turned off by the dropouts than the paint/decal job. It's beautifully executed, but it sure doesn't look like any 3V I've seen. The white head and seat tubes just don't look right (to me, at least), and to my knowledge, the 3V never had MASI on the front of the fork blades (at least not on the stock models). The seattube and downtube decals looked accurate, but they could have used the right head tube decal. It might have been an "original" decal for some models (I've seen it on a Torelli-era Pista), it wasn't used on the 3V. A different decal was used on both the American and (Alberto) Italian 3V, with the only difference between the two being a small printed "HI-FI" (whatever the heck THAT meant!) added in Alberto's decal.
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>Regardless, I bet it looks awesome in person.
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>IP Merkin
>Providence (first nice day in over a week), RI
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I didn't spec the colors, but I painted a number of frames exactly the
same "back in the day". Just not common.
To clarify the head tube graphics, it is a metal badge, not a decal. We did use a decal similiar to the headbadge on the Gran Corsas from the mid 80 through to the end of production. It is actually my favorite head tube decoration.
Jim
the CycleSmiths
Ranchita, CA 92066
760 782 2737