Josh - As you may know, this brake came in two lengths. The short one measures ~44 mm from the center of the brake arm pivot bolt to the bottom of the brake arm, and the longer one measures ~60 mm. I can't tell from the picture which one is on the Masi. If you do have the short one already, it is possible to use a rattail file to buy a couple of mm at teh top of the slot, w/o impeding access to the attaching bolt or weakening the brake arm too much. I've had success with this approach for lengthening a marginal fit.
Advice: DO NOT EVER try to BEND the brake arms. They are brittle and snap off.
And, if you look at the picture closely, you'll see another little feature of these brakes: The pivots are pretty far apart. With narrow rims, the brake pads are actually rising when they contact the rim, so there isn't as much offset a it looks like when the arems are open. At least once, I've managed a fit for a too-short brake by putting washers between the arm and the shoe. With the washers (or a wide rim), the pad isn't rising in the pivot arc.
But, your mileage may vary.
harvey sachs mcLean va
Josh Berger wrote:
In restoring my early 60's Masi Special, I am trying to fit Universal 61
brakes, which I understand is what were intended. No problem with the
rear,
but the pads in the front brake only reach about half way up the side of
the
rim (Fiamme red), even with the shoe all the way to the top of the slot! I
actually found a picture of a 1965 Special recently on eBay that seems to
show the same situation.
http://cgi.ebay.it/