iab

That is with active marketing, not a forgotten ebay listing. And while I agree with Doug on rarity, an early 70s US built Masi will have a much higher desirability. While I think this is a cool bike, most who also do are long out of the collecting game.

BMC_Kid 

As someone who grew up in the early '80s and who still keeps and rides vintage '80s bikes, I would have no interest in something this old. Most of my collecting buddies are the same, bikes from the '80s on up. And even then, most including myself are at the age where we are starting to thin the herds and modify those we keep with modern components to be able to enjoy them more as we age. It is just a fact of life, the collecting pool for these old bikes gets smaller and those that enter the market fresh, have a hard time paying what we think they are worth. As the market gets worse, I don't see this changing.

Onto this bike, I know what it costs to restore frames and source period correct components, and the only way I'd take on something similar to this, say a bike with incomplete group and finish issues, i.e., rust and missing paint, is to get it very cheap or it was something that I lusted after as a kid. I see these dollar amounts being offered up for what it is worth and I just can't wrap my head around it personally. But again, I am not the market for this bike but those who are, are even older than me and I can't see them taking on more costly projects at their age unless they could get it very cheap, not $1500-$2000. My one acquaintance who is the market for this bike is 15 years older than me and has all but given up most of his '60s-'70s collection and now focuses on keeping in relatively decent shape riding his modern upright bikes and only the best of his collection remains, which are pretty much museum quality wall hangers or taken out on easy Sunday rides. I'll be at this point in 10-15 years God willing and then the market will be flooded with vintage '80s bikes and I'll have to practically give them away at that point.

Good luck with whatever you decide to do with this bike and I hope you find the person out there who truly values this era and it goes to a good home and you make a nice profit on it. At least it has a chance of going to a collector now and not the dump.

AdventureManCO 

You make a very interesting point, one being discussed at various times off and on in the forum, this concept of devaluation. I'm inclined to agree, and would even argue that we are even closer to that 'giving away' stage than you mention. A couple of my other hobbies have been both stationary woodworking tools and pianos. I was in the game for a long time w/ the woodworking machinery and the devaulation was eye watering, within the context of what it cost the original owners back when new (think decent used car prices) and now plenty of folks just trying to give this stuff away, still without takers. The piano thing was a deep dive I recently did for my kids who both play. The amount of free pianos out there in the local ads is staggering. Most 'free' pianos are ready for thousands of dollars in rebuilding - new action, pinblock, bridge, possibly soundboard, strings, etc. and the labor to do it all, saying nothing of a refinish. They sit and sit and a lot go to the landfill, and I'm also talking about grand pianos as well, and sometimes pianos that cost almost as much as a small house when first purchased a hundred years ago.

Are older bikes headed that same direction? One thing is always true - the very top 1% tends to always have some collector value, but if that item is within a spectrum of interest that most people don't have anymore, then the supply/demand ratio still gets skewed. I was nearly shocked to see some of these 'grail' type bikes like Herses and Singers go for $600-$1500 recently at various auctions.

Maybe something the OP can do is list it for $1500 and lower the price until the right buyer comes along. Maybe that's at $1500, or maybe $600, who knows. I do appreciate that this bike was saved and the OP thought to share it with us. Never seen one of these before, so its pretty neat.

Doug Fattic 

The OP might want to go to Bob Hovey's Masi website to put his bike into better context. My contribution to this thread was let the OP know that an early Masi made before 1970 was a very rare thing to have in the US. Much rarer here than to have the same or similar one in Europe. How that relates to its monetary value is something I don't know because I don't pay much attention to vintage bike/frame sales. For someone that is a Masi enthusiast, this would be an exciting find. How much they would be willing to pay for it if it is their size is another question. It is in poor but rideable shape. It would be nice if it went into a collector or enthusiast's hands. These kind of bikes can show the progression of bicycle development over time. Particularly of a top classic Italian builder like Faliero Masi. Sometimes collectors like to take out old bikes of a certain era to compare how they ride to one of a different era.

10 speed bikes of any sort (like the most common versions, the Schwinn Varsity, Continental, Super Sport or Paramount) were seldom seen anywhere in the US before 1970. They would be found mostly in California or the big cities. My cousin and I did a bike trip in Vermont in 1966 on Schwinn Super Sports and everyone thought we were just crazy college kids out for an adventure. When I was teaching English in Japan during the 1970/71 school year I was shocked to read an article in Time or Newsweek titled "America discovers the 10 speed bicycle". I couldn't believe it and when I got back to the States the summer of 1971, I was amazed to discover sales of 10 speeds had exploded and my friends that knew I was into bikes were asking me all kinds of questions. In the midwest anyway the change from adults having no interest in 10 speed bikes before 1970 to lots of interest in 1971 was dramatic .

The good news about making this frame a rider is that it was designed for center pull brakes. This provides more tire clearance for today's wish to ride with fatter tires. Racing bikes of this era were all designed to use tubular tires without exception. I'm betting that at some point - either when the original owner bought the bike or had them changed out later - he had the rims (these are steel?) to 27 1 1/4". 700c clincher rims (the same ø as tubular rims) were not available until around 1976.

I'm pretty sure that if the crank is original to the age of the frame, those cranks will have a bolt hole diameter of 151. That means the lowest inner cog can only be 44. I see in the pictures that the big ring is a 49. If someone is riding by themselves a 49 makes more sense than a much more common 52. Only when the rider's speed gets over 20 mph is the bigger chainring useful.

bikemig 

That's great context for thinking about this bike. When I think about buying an old bike, I like vintage bikes that were designed around center pull brakes as you can run a 32c tire or even a bit wider. I find they are more versatile.

repechage

as a guy with over a dozen Masi bikes the only issue for me is size, too big. I like to ride what I own. This bike needs attention and some parts exchanges, I think it is sought after enough to reward the owner with a decent sale, the steel 27” rims was an expedient exchange when 700c tires were probably very difficult to locate. No idea why aluminum rims were not used. In 1975, there was a local racer that used 700c clinchers to train on, the best tire he could find was a Michelin 50, same tire basically as standard on the Peugeot UO8. Actually not a bad tire, made the Peugeot ride above its cost. Today that has flipped, very few 27” offerings. The rear brake adjustment is a marginal fit.