[CR] My Masi isn't for sale any more.

(Example: Component Manufacturers:Avocet)

Date: Mon, 3 Aug 2009 17:33:54 -0700
From: "Steve Maas" <bikestuff@nonlintec.com>
To: Classic Rendezvous <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
Subject: [CR] My Masi isn't for sale any more.


Last week I announced to the list that my Carlsbad Masi, S/N 160, was for sale. I rode it on the Pasadena ride yesterday, and several people expressed some degree of surprise that I'd want to sell it. I have to admit, I was not entirely sure, myself.

Then, today, by pure blind chance, I received the email below. How can I sell it after that?

Steve Maas Long Beach, California, USA

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Hi Steve -

I stumbled onto your website a while back and saw your Masi GC. I'm the person who sold it to you on ebay a number of years ago. I am so happy to see it restored and looking so good. Your photos made me remember all the abuse I heaped on that bike for all the years I had it. It was my favorite bike, and in fact my favorite bike of all time, in a cycling career of near half a century. I thought you might be interested in why the bike was such a eclectic mishmosh of components. I bought it as a frame; I was the second owner, although the original owner only had it for a short time and never did a build on it, so it was essentially new when I got it. It was originally gray, but after years of my riding year-round in Pennsylvania weather it needed a paint job, which was done by Tom Kellogg of Spectrum Cycles.

As I built up the bike the only components that I really cared about were the hubs and bottom bracket, which were all Phil Wood - I'm the biggest Phil Wood fan of all time, with forty years of trouble-free use of them. The rest of the components just came out of my personal stash and what the bike shop had, and I made all sorts of changes in the components over the years. I can't remember all the various derailleurs and brake levers and pedals and cranksets that hung on that bike over the years.

The other thing I remember from those early days with the bike was that its first wheels were for tubular tires, which I rode for years until clinchers got lighter and I got sick of tire glue all over my hands and clothes. Also, as I got older speed just didn't matter that much any more. The wheels were built by one of the best wheel builders I've ever known, a long-retired racer named Bert Smith, from Doylestown, PA.. They never went out of true, no matter what abuse I dished out to that poor bike.

It was good to see my bike again, and I'm so happy that you've given it the new life that it deserves. I hope you get years of enjoyment from it.

Best wishes,

Jacob Stone

P.S. The Chrome Hetchins is amazing!!!