Joe,
Those frames had double tapered seat stays. Full chrome fork with internal crown. Engraved with an "M" on the crown and brake bridge. As I recall, all the subsequent Nuova Strada frames from Billatto had standard tapered seat stays, external crowns, chromed right chainstays, and more engraving.
There were damn few sold to dealers, they expected better finish, paint and decals than those frames displayed.
Jim Allen the CycleSmiths Ranchita, CA 760 782 2737
On 1/31/2011 12:52 PM, Joe Starck wrote:
> Roscoe,
> Regarding the batch of frames you describe below, I recall the day they were loaded onto a flatbed trailer. The trailer size was about 20ft, more or less. My guesstimate of the number of frames on the trailer was 30, more or less. I mainly recall the red ones, a much different, much darker red than of the frame's fade below.
>
> I distinctly remember the seat-stay plug/cap/squish? treatment though, of these frames picked up that day in 1984. To my recollection the flutes were deeper than the one below, and came to a square-ish round contour at the top end. The frame for sale below doesn't seem to be as deeply fluted, but moreso, what causes me to pause, is that it is shaped to a point, not square-ish round.
>
> Perhaps somebody can track down one of the 1984-bob-hansing-bought/not-to-be-masi-frames, to compare seat stay fluting?
>
> In the Q&A of the "Campagnolo 70s Masi Bicycle 64cm M Italy Rare Vintage" ebay listing, it is stated that the frame "Was brought over from Europe but repainted in Masi factory in the US by Gion Simonetti." Is the current fade then, the Simonetti paint job? Or is the current fade a later re-paint? Also, it was nobody's business but the former owner's of the U.S. Masi bicycle company -- to wit, Sahm, or "Rexart," or Kirkbride, or whoever -- to authorize the identity and purpose of the frame. Was it an in-house experiment to ascertain its potential merits as a G.C.? And decided against? Or was this bike actually sold to a Masi dealer? Methinks the buyer's gonna need a decal that states: "This is a G.C. that is not a G.C." So, whatever story the seller is sticking to, only the grapevine knows.
>
> Joe Starck
> Madison, Wisconsin USA
>
>
> --- On Mon, 1/31/11, JimAllen<jimallen.ranchita@gmail.com> wrote: