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Just Acquired - ‘74 Masi Gran Criterium (mostly, if not all, original condition)

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Just Acquired - ‘74 Masi Gran Criterium (mostly, if not all, original condition)

Old 10-28-20, 08:45 AM
  #51  
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Originally Posted by repechage
Don’t have access to those clips at present.
if you measure with the front wheel straight from the front axle center to the center of the bottom bracket- that would be another way to tell,
That measurement is 60.0 cm

Here’s a shot of the top tube deflection. I’ve never really scrutinized a bike this much - it’s really interesting. I really appreciate all of the knowledge shared so far.




I like the look of this this bike. I was thinking that white bar tape would look good if that and yellow were the choices for ”factory original.” Typically though, should the bar tape color match the decal color?

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Old 10-28-20, 08:52 AM
  #52  
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that big light blue metallic example has White MASI and yellow Gran Criterium on the downtube.
But, doubtful that is the original bar wrap.
50's-60-s era gear approach, close up front, wide in back.
brake levers are pretty low.
Note the different lower head lug spigot difference between your bike and the big one.
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Old 10-28-20, 08:57 AM
  #53  
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Front center on my production GC's from Carlsbad:

56 cm 588mm
55 cm 610mm
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Old 10-28-20, 09:09 AM
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really nice.
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Old 10-28-20, 09:22 AM
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Originally Posted by repechage
that big light blue metallic example has White MASI and yellow Gran Criterium on the downtube.
But, doubtful that is the original bar wrap.
50's-60-s era gear approach, close up front, wide in back.
brake levers are pretty low.
Note the different lower head lug spigot difference between your bike and the big one.
Pressed vs IC lugs?
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Old 10-28-20, 10:25 AM
  #56  
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Originally Posted by majmt
Pressed vs IC lugs?
No. The stamped (pressed) lugs were modified later, the transition moves around as more bikes surface for portraits.
The "early" bikes had the lug like you have, then the "shoreline" was revised. Cutting back the amount of metal.
The investment cast lugs were very close to the second style. The windows were also revised a bit.
The easy tell is that save for One bike I have seen, the extended seat tube tang on the forward portion of the seat lug indicates stamped lug, with a welded on extension.
The later investment cast lugs have a triangular window behind under the seat lug ears and a shorter tang forward, no holes.
A lot of effort went into that seat lug before they went investment cast in Spring/Summer of 1975.
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Old 10-28-20, 10:33 AM
  #57  
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Originally Posted by repechage
Front center on my production GC's from Carlsbad:

56 cm 588mm
55 cm 610mm
I should mention the 55 has a 55cm top tube, the 56 a 55.5cm... so, its longer but shorter up front.
The Design for the 55 was- 55cm top tube. I have a 55cm "special" with a 54.5cm TT.
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Old 10-28-20, 11:09 AM
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I went back and measured with a better tape and mine is more like 604mm.
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Old 10-28-20, 11:29 AM
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585mm on the ‘96 De Rosa shown earlier.
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Old 10-28-20, 01:02 PM
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Originally Posted by Salamandrine
Interesting method for raking the fork. That would explain why it looks like it's been jumped off a few picnic benches by a teenager. I hesitated to mention it. I assumed it must have come from the factory like that, since the bike seems so well taken care of otherwise.

FWIW my Lippy built Masi has perfectly aligned fork blades. I'm clearly biased, but I think it's a much nicer bend and generally more graceful fork than I've seen on most other Masi's. I kind of assume he was using his own jigs.

As I suggested previously, I think this frame got extra rake because it needed toe clearance, being a relatively smaller frame.
Originally Posted by majmt
Is this what you mean? 170mm crank arm. Pardon the dog and cat hair.
Pretty sure a medium toe clip from reference of parts in the bike bin.
This bike could lose quite a bit in offset (rake) and still have plenty of room.
It was Designed.
the "lippy" bend is different than the others. No question he built a good bike, I raced against guys who had his eponymous frames.
one of the contractor bikes stuck out as it had right angle surfacing of the head lugs, Masi used a slight chamfer to eliminate the small wedge gap between the lug lip and the headset.
Was a long time ago, not sure if it was an Eisentraut or a Lippy frame. Was California Burgundy, a Gian Simonetti favorite, his contribution. It would resurface on the Medici bikes.
By late 1976 though the "new" had worn off for the brand. Was no longer the sought after by the "bike of the month club" crowd.
There would be a minor bump later with the Breaking Away movie placement.
Today, with more modern marketing awareness, they would have encouraged dealers to buy one similar to what was used in the movie.
Now it is left to enthusiasts to recreate one of the bikes.
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Old 10-29-20, 08:53 AM
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I’ve been looking for photos of similar Masis and found this one. A later CA model? Same brake cable routing and it looks like the tire savers are set up the same way. Looks like the top tube cable guides have that dob of yellow paint. I like the “seasoned” yellow tape. Looks like the right brake is scorched. Seen that before, was that intentional?




I also ran across this link for a beautifully restored Italian GC for sale (no affiliation) - lots of detailed photos for reference. Hope it’s OK to post the link.
1972 Masi
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Old 10-29-20, 09:14 AM
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That one image does not show a tremendous amount.
Masi usually sent the bikes out left hand for front brake.
Rider preference, Merckx even changed his over his career.
The small bike does show the alternate seat tube bands, the ring of stars, if you will.
From observation the delivery of the two different types of Masi America bands were concurrent.
My guess is the ring of stars was used last. A few bikes received one of each type.

Post Carlsbad at some point they returned to the World Champion stripes.
Then later the Palmares box was reworked to the forward facing position.

That RH hood just looks sun or chemical burned, maybe both.
Brake levers are set lower than what would allow useful riding from the hoods.

Ray Dobbins did a string of well executed refurbishments. He has been pretty quiet and last I was aware had retired to central America.

Last edited by repechage; 10-29-20 at 09:17 AM.
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Old 06-29-21, 04:10 PM
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Update on ‘74 Masi GC

I’d like to provide an update and get some feedback on the Masi GC I picked up last fall but rather than start a new thread, I’m just adding to the old one. This is the finest bike I’ve ever had. Since it was so pristine, I wanted to make sure that I could always return it to its original condition as I made a few changes to replace and preserve some of the irreplaceable components so that I could actually ride it somewhat worry-free.



I took off the the Campy pedals so I wouldn’t bung up the toe clips and put on some vintage-looking SPD pedals. I also took off the original Cinelli Unicanitor saddle and temporarily put on a carbon saddle that I had. I like the saddle a lot and I think it looked nice except………it’s carbon.

I took the advice to have a nice set of clinchers built up to replace the original Martano/Clement tubular set (now in cool dark storage). Used Campy NR hubs, an NOS 14-28 Regina Oro freewheel laced to H plus Son rims, mounted with Continental GP Classic tires. I had to use the curved-lever skewers but still looking for some nice flat-lever ones.



After cleaning it up a bit (I did miss a few spots), the cracked jockey wheels were replaced with some NOS Campy ones I was able to find. I was wondering if Bullseye jockey wheels might be a better and quieter upgrade.






After cleaning off much of the old grime, the only blemishes I found were a few small ones on the seat stays. Other than that, the original paint would be 100%.





Just had a set of tubulars built up again with NR hubs (found some flat lever skewers) with another Regina Oro 14-28 freewheel laced to a set of NOS 80s (?) Campy Lambda rims to sort of match the bike color. Mounted some new 23c Vittoria Corsa tires that I had hanging up using Mariposa tape for the first time. Not as nice a match to the brake hood color as the clinchers above but they are faster. Also found a pretty nice Unicanitor saddle on eBay with just right amount of patina (they seem to getting pretty precious anymore).


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Old 06-29-21, 04:31 PM
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from the “post your old shop sticker” thread:

Originally Posted by gugie
Don Milberger is part of American cycling history - he owned that shop as well as Bicycle Research. Check your vintage bicycle tools, some might be from his company.

It's "near SF" if you're from out of state, Concord, CA is a long commute from there. When I was a sales rep in the Bay Area for KHS I signed them up as a dealer. Most any LBS BITD had some Bicycle Research tools. Here's a link I found that has several of them posted.
Originally Posted by obrentharris
I still own a couple Bicycle Research cone wrenches and freewheel tools. They made a lot of good quality tools. I knew Bob Force, Don's silent partner, who told me that when cartridge bearing hubs, cassettes, sealed bottom brackets, and threadless headsets became common their big money makers were various shims and spacers.
Brent

Does anyone else know anything about The Bicycle Shop in Concord, CA or Don Milberger and Bob Force? I thought it was interesting that the shop opened up in 1974 and this bike would probably have been sold in the first year of operation. The original owner of the bike was an engineer and I wonder if he worked with those guys at the Berkeley Lab before they opened up the bike shop. I found a photo of Don Milberger a while back. I’d love to know who all may have touched this bike.


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Old 06-29-21, 04:52 PM
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For now, I like the black bar tape but I did pick up some yellow tape for a more factory original look. Per repechage, the bike would have left Carlsbad with yellow tape so I’m guessing that the black tape and plugs replaced it close to time of the original purchase. Would the Campy plugs be too blingy?






I have these chains as well that might be a good match for the Oro freewheels. Which would be better?


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Old 06-29-21, 05:00 PM
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You need the little dabs of Yellow paint painted on the top tube clip fasteners- actually they snipped the screws off first originally.

the cable ends had cuffs crimped near the end of the cables- not the closed ones commonly available. Those and the cable ends were painted yellow as well in the case of this color of bike.

now you need to find a white Silca frame fit pump and get it painted to match the color of the bike ( no clear coat required )

and there was a German eBay seller selling ALE water bottles with the decoration for a reasonable price- buy two so you get the white cap, there are others about for silly prices.

I rode my Carlsbad GC this morning.
mine could use a cleaning, a month of use dirty.
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Old 06-29-21, 05:05 PM
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Everest Chain

the Campagnolo bar ends are cool, pricey.

original were White Hunt-Wilde PVC plugs.
everyone switched to Cinelli caps that were taped over- bar tape starting at the ends of the wrap and finishing off under the hoods

original to the bike was white or yellow.
I am using Newbaums right now- picks up dirt faster than I like. Way back it was fresh tape for every race, just like Eddy.
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Old 06-29-21, 05:08 PM
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To be OEM you need the +1 mm wide BB lock ring.
Jim Merz was making them for a time
really hard to find originals.
they are out there but no one knows to mention- you really have to look at the listing images.
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Old 06-29-21, 05:36 PM
  #69  
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@majmt

Some here may disagree but the tire saver on the front should go the other way, under the crown.

If it catches and wads up it can take you down and do a lot of damage by itself, never mind the damage to the bike from going down.

They can catch going either way but may pull apart when pointing forward, more likely to wad up if it catches when its pointing rearward.

Beautiful bike, very nice job you're doing with it.
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Old 06-29-21, 05:45 PM
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Originally Posted by majmt
Here’s a shot of the top tube deflection. I’ve never really scrutinized a bike this much - it’s really interesting.

I have an Italian Masi GC that my parents picked up for me in Milan in late summer 1972. It has a top tube height variation of 6mm. I measured it extremely carefully for my frame building colleague Rich Gangl that was making a Masi tribute bike just like the one he rode in his early racing days. My fixtures are very good at displaying all geometry dimensions. Somehow a private email group of Masi owners got started from a Classic Rendezvous posting and everyone was measuring their top tube slope. The range was something from 3 to 9 mm.

I'm curious what caused these variations? I've understood that they had master frames of each size that set their fixtures and perhaps those are off a bit. Or did they build them like some British builders sliding the top tube on last when the rest of the frame is out the jig so it didn't end up perfectly level?
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Old 06-29-21, 05:52 PM
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Originally Posted by merziac
Somebody needs to investigate to find out who clamped that reflector onto the seat stay and administer the proper amount of justice.
I've got two of them mounted to the seat stays of my Fuji... Been there since 1976/77 - note that they are clamped to the chrome part! BITD, additional red reflectors were on the Pletscher rear rack and Cannondale seat bag in the days before reliable LED blinky lights (note the USCG life vest strobe light on the rear rack that was used later in life!) Oh, and not easily seen is the additional white reflective tape wrapped around the rack stays as well! BE SEEN was my thinking!

Sadly the Cannondale seat bag was sold at my parents' 'downsizing' garage sale along with the matching panniers...


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Old 06-29-21, 05:55 PM
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I'm not sure how I could refrain from riding that. It's effin perfect. If you don't ride it, someone else gets to do it and laugh at you.
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Old 06-29-21, 06:03 PM
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Originally Posted by repechage
Ditch the front tire saver- there really is not enough room to flip it around.
Sorry, but I have to disagree with that...

Here's a bike with 1mm tire clearance AND has tire savers....


It CAN be done!

.
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Old 06-29-21, 06:06 PM
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Originally Posted by Cougrrcj
I've got two of them mounted to the seat stays of my Fuji... Been there since 1976/77 - note that they are clamped to the chrome part! BITD, additional red reflectors were on the Pletscher rear rack and Cannondale seat bag in the days before reliable LED blinky lights (note the USCG life vest strobe light on the rear rack that was used later in life!) Oh, and not easily seen is the additional white reflective tape wrapped around the rack stays as well! BE SEEN was my thinking!

Sadly the Cannondale seat bag was sold at my parents' 'downsizing' garage sale along with the matching panniers...


Well as I stated earlier, I get the intent and do not disagree but I run lights and cameras front and rear, 24/7, GPS and helmet too, period.

Any one of those may win the day in court, dead or alive.
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Old 06-29-21, 06:08 PM
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Originally Posted by Cougrrcj
Sorry, but I have to disagree with that...

Here's a bike with 1mm tire clearance AND has tire savers....


It CAN be done!

.
Yep, by nature of design, they can usually be bent around to take the space wherever it is.
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