Originally Posted by Masiguy

Hey all, sorry for the delay in coming to the party here- it's been a nutty week and I had all kinds of trouble trying to log in here for some reason. The forums were too busy and other stuff... oh well.

So, yes, I have said all along that Masi of today is not the Masi of 20-30-40 years ago. Faliero's been dead for awhile, so that's one big issue; sorry, all my seances wouldn't bring him back from the dead. Though I still burn a candle at the shrine I built.

Though some will argue that Masi is the biggest defamation of a brand name (obviously I disagree), we are no different than Bianchi, Peugeot, Motobecane, Cinelli, Basso, Raleigh, etc. I know some of the listed brands here don't inspire much passion to some folks, but for others they are the world of cycling. It's like any other brand that changes hands either through family lineage or share holders.

Here's my longstanding point; if the brand does what it feasibly can to uphold the traditions that made the brand the icon it is, then it is doing good not evil. I firmly believe, as I have said before here and elsewhere, that the bikes ride very, very well and we do all that we can to produce bikes worthy of the name. No, I don't personally braze the frames together while sipping a nice Italian espresso. I don't hand file lugs and lay tubes into a mitering jig. However, we do spend an agonizing amount of time sweating the details. In a perfect world, where I can prove the benefit to the people who pay my salary, we would still be producing frames right here in this building. We did make that small run of frames with Russ Denny and Ted Kirkbride. I intend to keep doing things like that and some other cool things as I get the brand back on its feet. One day, who knows, maybe you'll be able to order a custom built Masi again. No, Faliero and Alberto won't be building it, but it'll be everything those great builders would approve of. Let us not forget that many Italian family brands are now built in the orient. Anybody ever heard of that brand Colnago?

As for the Italian made frames we did from 2002-2004; the frames were built in Italy and then sent to Taiwan for paint and building. The frames are great quality and I will personally confirm that they ride as nice as anything from any other recognized builder in Italy or elsewhere. As far as production bikes go, they are extremely sweet. 25 years of doing this, I promise you they ride great.

Parting comment and then I'm out of here before the fire bombs start flying at me; quality is 100% independent of geography. I remember building Italian built frames for customers in the 80's and 90's that were not straight, had bad paint, threads that were all gummed up, etc from well known makers. Geography is irrelevant, but... ride what makes you happy.