Cog-noscenti,
The example of the Masi with Dura Ace shook this out of my brain:
Was it not normal to buy a bike as a framset at your LBS and then build it up as you saw fit? I know that for the twenty or so years I've been into bikes (which is not very long compared to many on this list) a high end bike was put together by the customer and the shop. Not at the factory where the frame was made.
In cases where grouppos came in the same box as the frame from the bike manufacturer, this was usually just to take advantage of the volume pricing that the manufacturer could get and pass on to the customer.
Were I to have bought a Masi in the seventies could I not have walked into my LBS, plunked down the cash and specced my bike with Dura Ace? Or Hi E components or whatever?
If this was the case, it would seem to me that 'original' could be highly variable.
-Harry Schwartzman
Now in Brooklyn, NY