Originally Posted by
repechage
No restraint of opinion there. I am not clear if the Nouva Strada is exceptionally good or just uncommon from your sentence.
Not all Team3V received added sponsor graphics on the top tube. The one I own is devoid of them.
It does have "fastback" seat stays. Brian Baylis wrote long ago on the bikelist CR email list that he rode his Eisentraut A to work at Carlsbad and Faliero frowned on that design. But no explanation provided.
Alberto did later send out Masi bikes from the Vigorelli that did employ that fastback style. So it goes.
The tubing type is a mystery. the only telltale on some are the tubes with the string of pearls embossing, those proclaim special Excell sourced tubes.
I think he must mean the latter, as I have a Nuova Strada that I bought for the parts and, while there is nothing wrong with it, neither is there anything special about it. I'd say it's a half-step up from a 1970s Motobecane in quality. The most interesting thing about it for me is that I also have a Torelli Corsa Strada, which was their budget Italian road bike, and the two frames differ only in tubing, with the Masi being Columbus and the Torelli Oria. All the details such as seat stay attachment, stay ends, braze-ons, etc. are identical, leading me to conclude that they came off the same assembly line. Torelli was a small-time US importer and their better frames were made by Mondonico after Torelli's first few years in business, but from what I've read their lower-end frames came from other contract builders and, by extension, I propose that the Masi Nouva Strada did not come out of the Mondonico factory. Whether or not Masi used multiple contract builders for the Nuova Strada and thus some were better than others, I cannot say, but there seem to be so few of them out there, I wouldn't think they would have had to go to multiple sources.
I figure at some point I will repaint the Nuova Strada and pass it along to someone who wants a decent. classic frame that says Masi on it. I've got two California Masis and enough nicer Italian bikes that I don't have any desire to ride what is essentially a generic.