Bob,
Marcel Calborne was the original interpreter, as he was able to speak both Italian and English. I think he built wheels and aided assembly of bikes once the frames were finished. Marcel left just as the first batch of 25 frames was being painted. I don't think he did much, if anything as far as contributing to building frames. I was there one week by the time he left. Gian Simonetti took his place as the "mouthpiece" the following week.
Chuck Hoefer was a frame finish filer, as was my friend and roommate David Vander Linde. Chuck was a friend of Simonettis from the bay area where Simo came from. Mike Howard and David VanderLinde were friends of mine from our bike club in Huntington Beach. I got both of them the job at Masi; as they began to need more people they asked us who we might know who might be interested.
As Jim Allen mentioned, Lippy and Eisentraut were off premises sub-contractors for a short period of time in late '75 and early'76. Bruce Gordon may have left Eisentraut before Albert took on some Masis; I don't think Bruce had any involvement with the Masis from Albert. I'll ask him next time we talk; but he's never mentioned building Masis in the hundreds of conversations we've had in the past year or two.
Brian Baylis
La Mesa, CA
There was some question off-list as to Marcel's Calbourne's work at Masi...
I was given his name as a possible person to contact but it was emphasis ed
that he worked there for a very short time and his actual status was
unclear... he almost certainly was not a brazer.
Another guy that several folks suggested I contact for Masi info was Chu ck
Hoefer. Again, I don't know what he did, I was just told that he worked
there for a time and might be an interesting source of information.
Also, I'm not sure when Bruce Gordon was working with Albert Eisentraut. ..
if it was around 1975-6 when Albert was subcontracting for Masi, then hi s
name probably belongs on the list as well.
Bob Hovey Columbus, GA
Subject: [CR]Two questions regarding Masi...
Glad to see I wasn't on an island with regard to the Masi alumni posts. I've had several more correspondences off list than on. Thanks to those who indulged my online conversations last evening. I see lists popping up here on-list, and wanted to share one that was sort of built in these
off list chats last night. Many thanks to Mssrs Hovey, Moos etc for the dialogue and names. Here's the latest one that was agreed upon by my bed
time, mostly and originally sent by Bob H.:
Mario Confente Mike Howard Ron Smith Marcel Calbourne Albert Eisentraut Keith Lippy Gian Simonetti Ted Kirkbride Rob Roberson David Moulton Dave Tesch Joe Starck Brian Baylis Jim Cunningham
And a couple 'maybes'
Joe Bell Bill Holland
Comments?
Greg Overton 'how can it be this sunny and this cold at the same time?' Salt Lake City, Utah