Originally Posted by
Mayonnaise
From an email from Jim Cunningham:
I was close to Masi USA when those bikes were produced. I don‚t know
the builder, but they were produced in Italy, to a lower price point. A
high percentage of the frames had quality control issues; most with
alignment. Much of the inventory was dumped to Euro Asia who blew them
out at $75 each.
If the bike works for you enjoy it. Maybe you got a good one!
To my recollection, it was one, and only one small batch of frames in '84 or '85 that were accepted by EuroAsia for resale; I don't know if these were sold as Masis though, and they certainly weren't painted by Jim Allen. For all years to follow though, a proper Nuova Strada frame and fork came from Italy chromed, yet unpainted, and all these frames were quality-checked complete before paint. So, for all years of production of the real Masi Nuova Strada, distributed by Masi and Masi distributors, including Ten Speed Drive and Torreli -- during the time I worked for Masi, from '84 to '90 -- these frames held no kinship to those few Cunningham speaks of.