Dear Mr. Maasland: Forgive me for using your first name. Now I just don't know where to jump. So many CR members have criticized me for addressing them as "Mr." that I stopped using the formal address. Mores-the-fool-me. Unfortunately, I think your link to the Messori bike is defective because I can't get the image. If you could be so kind as to send another I'd appreciate it. It's true that very few concepts, either in bike-building or anywhere else, are entirely original. In yet another bike story, probably also apocryphal, Ernesto Colnago was said to be not at all happy to learn of the albeit superficial similarity of the C50 seat-stay to that of the Masi Feria (or chronometro). As far as the Merckx connection to the Masi Feria, I'm hardly in a position to question the likes of Alberto Masi-or you either! Who to believe? Regards, George
> Georgie wrote (please forgive me if you feel that I am taking
> too many
> liberties with your name, but my logic is that you feel
> comfortable
> enought to call me Steve, so I can't imagine that you would mind
> if I
> too do just as much):
>
> "Don't defenestrate me for saying so, but I've never seen a bike
> with
> more fenestrations! I
> recall Mr. Masi showing us the masters for these fenestrated
> chain stays
> and recalling the vast amount of work needed to produce them. He
> mentioned that one of the first such bikes went to Eddy Merckx."
>
> You should all be aware that Masi apparently 'borrowed' this
> idea from a
> framebuilder by the name of Messori. Messori made quite a few
> bikes
> using this principle and even went to the Vigorelli to show it
> to
> Faliero. Shortly after Messori's visit, Masi built their first
> prototype. To this day, Messori, now well into his 80's, has a
> bad taste
> in his mouth whenever you mention Masi.
>
> Here is a photo of one of the bikes that Messori built back in
> the 60's:
>
> http://www.wooljersey.com/
> frame.jpg.html
>
> I don't know whether to classify this type of bike as a solution
> looking
> for a problem or simply an exercise in futility; but I dig it
> nonetheless. The Messori bikes goes well beyond where Masi went
> with the
> cut-outs.
>
> BTW, I am highly doubtful that any such bike ever went from Masi
> to
> Merckx. There is simply no logic in supplying such a bike,
> because it
> would have no purpose to a racer. It does however make for a
> neat story
> for Alberto.
>
> Steven Maasland
> Moorestown, NJ
> USA
>
> _______________________________________________
>
George Hollenberg MD
CT, USA