Century Bob

I am building my 1975 Masi GC up and am debating my wheel options. I`m not worried about finding original Martano Tubs. I am wondering when the black or grey anodized wheels hit the market. Were they available in the mid 1970s? I saw some really cool looking NISI rims in black that would be cool but not if they are not age appropriate I will stick with silver.

3alarmer 

.
...here is a link to the VeloBase list of wheel rims. Like all of VeloBase, it tries to state year ranges for the various rims.
I looked up the Mavic MA 40, because that's the first anodized rim I remember seeing in large numbers.

For the MA 40, they seem to list it as beginning in the mid 80's. But you can search through there yourself.

Unca_Sam

I don't think you'll find anything other than silver box section alloy rims drilled for 36 or maybe 32 holes. That said, there are plenty of benefits to using a modern rim in an appropriate finish to get the bike rolling if you're building wheels.

Century Bob

That is another angle I am considering. The HPlus TB14 looks interesting. I like the darker colors but would like to know if those colors were even used in the 70s.

Bad Lag

Silver (polished aluminum) and nothing else. Lots of different brands were available but that is the only correct color.

obrentharris 

I recall that Nisi made some gold anodized tubular rims in the seventies, but cannot recall how early in the seventies.
Brent

Robvolz 

Eddy rode on gold rims

steelbikeguy

The 1976 Palo Alto catalog lists some common rims. No colors are mentioned because there was nothing but silver.
This isn't intended to cover the exotic, uncommon rims, but it certainly predates the use of dark anodizing.
I seem to recall mention of anodized rims in the late1977 or 1978 time period.



Steve in Peoria

robobike316 

My recollections are similar to some others. I started racing in the late 70's and don't recall seeing any ano rims at all. Super Champion and Fiamme sew ups all bare aluminum . Every good bike shop sold Simichrome back then. Sometime in the 80's I remember Ambrosio a came out with a black ano and of course the MA-40 I think a bit later. By mid 80's bare aluminum was not so common anymore. That is how I remember it anyway. In the 90's I used Mavic MA-2 to look appropriate on old bikes. That was a flat silver ano rim. Nice not to have to polish them.
I believe Velo Orange sell some rims that would look good on that frame.

seagrade 

According to Velo-Retro’s Mavic timeline Velo-Retro: Mavic Timeline Mavic SSC Bleu and SSC Grey were introduced in 1972 and 1974 respectively, although not commercialised until some years later.

Photos of professionals riding dark grey rims in the mid-1970s are not hard to find.

The MA40 was preceded by the G40 which was introduced in 1982. I remember them as being a bit soft and the MA40 noticeably stronger and more durable.

repechage

raced on Nisi Gold anodized 200 gram rims in 1974 on the track.

I think this frame should be paired with polished aluminum rims.

unfortunate the down tube graphics are not correct, paint appears otherwise nice. Masi would be in pale yellow and Gran Criterium would be in white fill.

Century Bob

Polished it aluminum will be. The paint chip for matching as well as the decal was supplied by a well know painter who painted for Masi. He offered both styles of decal as accurate. I dont know enough to argue whats right. This pic is just after the decals were applied. I then cleared it, color sanded it, flow coated and polished it. You cant feel the decal in the paint so it is a done deal now. I still think the chicks on the bike path will still dig it.

smd4

Same. Looking over magazines from the period, pretty much every nice bike in the Mid-1980s used dark anodized rims. It was de rigueur.

repechage

Baylis would only have placed the signature on the drive side.
Jim Allen painted for Masi after the "dark days" of 1977-1979. He used the one color downtube tansfers as that is what they moved to in 1980-1981.
the "Breaking Away" period bikes only had Masi on the downtube in an odd place. Using up the old transfers, some of which were damaged elsewhere and to be blunt, incompetent.
I have a 1981- single color lettering fill
all three of my 1975 GC bikes, have the two tone downtube transfer.

repechage

And they looked a mess when the anodizing was half worn off.

smd4

One of the reasons I'm hesitant to replace my silver rims with more era-appropriate dark anodized.

darkmoon

Mavic SSC Paris~Roubaix is the first hard anodized rim, I think.
Mavic started to supply them pro teams at 1975 Tour de France.

Masi GC 1975 and SSC PR, which has white bold MAVIC letters and red label, are period correct.
The next generation SSC PR with white Italic MAVIC letters appeared 1982 or so.

SSC PR was a very rare rim those days.
I saw them only with Gios Super Record and Bianchi Specialissima in 1970's.
High school and college kids couldn't buy them.
And SSC PR, either.
SSC PR was a very special rim and bike component for young cyclists like me.

So Masi GC 1975 with SSC PR will be a very special bike , at least for me

Mavic GP-4 appeared in Japan's shops in 1979 or 1980.
My first tub wheel was Dura Ace 5speed hubs and Super Champion Arc-en-Ciel.
It was 1979 and soon changed the rims with GP-4.

I'm not sure, it's an old story, older than 40 years ago, but I think that's not completely wrong.