Cool Masi
 

Interesting backstory if true
https://www.ebay.com/itm/30575559346...Bk9SR6CF5bm0ZARelisted for non-paying auction winner.

Please read the entire description:

This is #30 of 100 very limited edition CCCP Russian Masi 3V Volumetrica framesets from Masi USA. This 58cm (c-t) Ferrari Red beauty has been built up and ridden less than 50 miles. Top tube is 57cm (c-c). It is next to new, with only a few pinpoint paint defects, mostly touched up so one cannot see them...they don't show up in photos . Decals are perfect, dropouts and fork crown are nicely chromed.

The lettering is Russian, using the Cyrillic alphabet. Contrary how done stories, these frames were not built for the Russian Olympic team, but were built in 1989 & 1990 as a tribute to the recent World Championship rides of Viacheslav Ekimov in the late 1980s. Coincidentally, the Soviet Union fell in 1989.

This frame uses the proprietary 3V internal lugs and oversized 3 main tubes. Frame was beautifully painted & decalled by Jim Allen, the primary paint guy at Masi USA in the 1980s.

This frame & fork will come with the $150 black sealed EDCO headset and the black Modolo carbon shift levers, and the seat pin. I will throw in the embroidered CCCP hat. The seatpost, saddle, handlebars, and Cinelli 1R stem ARE NOT INCLUDED.

I bought this gem four years ago and it has been hanging on a wall since then. The first owner had it professionally built by a pro shop and it was ridden twice.

There cannot be many of this frame in this condition. This is truly a rare gem. It was one of the favorites in Robin Williams' collection, sold after his death.

Thanks for posting a picture. They weren’t cooperating even after I downloaded them to my laptop.

The thing is beautiful. The thing I tried to discern...were they saying this was a piece of Robin Williams’ bicycle estate sale for charity, or just like Robin Williams favorite from a recent charity sale. It’s a bit ambiguous.

Curious of the American flag decals. I thought all the 3v Volumetrica were made in Italy.

Is the number the same? If so ambiguity over. If owned by Robin Williams, Is think the ask would be higher.

That said, I was looking through his gems. Of the classic racing steel, I saw a DeBernardi, the Masi and a Cooper (is that a Ron Cooper)?

All the other nameplates were allot/CF versions.

Another reason I wished I had met him. One of my faves.

I ran into him just once (even tho his SF home was sort of walking distance from my very humble hovel) on a ride I used to make nearly every weekend: across the GG Bridge and onto either Sausalito or some other Marin County destinations. In this case he was riding with a small group of pretty fast MAMILs who passed me on the bridge and I caught up with them (not trying so they must have made a pit stop) on Bridgeway around Marin City. That was when I recognized who was riding (Robin) but didn't notice what bike he was on, must have been some modern CF job or I would have paid better attention....then they dropped me again, with ease.
IIRC he wasn't a tall guy (maybe 5'-9") or so and I think his default size was around 54cm, so the CCCP Masi looks a little on the "tall" size for him, IF I remember things correctly and if I correctly judge this frame to be more like a 56cm.
I know for sure he had at least one Dario Pegoretti in his personal collection

The Robin Williams provenance, if it could be backed up, will add value to the bike, but If it wasn't originally built for the Russian Olympic team, then what's the whole point on putting the CCCP and Cyrillic fonts on the bike?
It is almost like they were intending to have owners fool other people that it was built for the Russian team...... which is a bit tacky, IMO.
Saying that, I don't think the Cyrillic graphics and the "CCCP" on the top tube really adds that much more value to the bike. Heck, some nice chrome and unique pantographing on it would have actually made it more interesting.

From the description in the listing:

Yeah, the CCCP thing isn’t what impressed me. That it was owned and ridden by Robin Williams was the cool thing.

Plus, it looks pristine.

The ebay text doesn't explicitly say this was owned by Robin Williams. If the seller knew this was a Williams bike they would have clearly said so.

Still, a very sweet MA3N.

Yeah, that has been my question. The eBay pictures clearly show the bike being numbered 30 out of 100. The picture that surfer Rosa linked is not clear enough to see but it does not look like the number 30.

From near a time when Putin was stationed in East Germany

the gold standard of provenance is that it should be unambiguous. For a real collector this bike does not meet that standard.

"a Cobra that was once driven by Carroll Shelby" is not good enough. Now if he signed the dash, that is different.

Kind of the same deal here. We cannot positively establish that this frame was owned by the actor.

/markp

I don't think it's Robin Williams' bike. If you look at the seat tube water bottle bosses, the upper boss is even with the cyrillic "N" on the ebay bike. On Robin Williams' frame, the upper boss is above the "N".

<ochen interesno>
<bolshoye spasibo>Very interesting
Many thanks!

Frustrating: This Forum won't let me use any Cyrillic characters, so I had to stick with the English transliterations and translations. (In the words of my maternal grandfather, who took a couple of classes in Russian while I was studying it for my foreign language requirement, "They have 33 letters in their alphabet, about 1/3 from the Roman alphabet, 1/3 from the Greek, and 1/3 they made up themselves." :)

If buying into the provenance mindset, who and what kind of a caretaker would dismantle the bike and just off the carcass? Its like buying Frank Sinatra's excellent condition Cadillac at an auction and then taking it all apart, then just sell body. Lol

Regardless what one thinks of the 3V frame, personally think this particular storyline is stretched.

My original interpretation of the text description was that it was NOT Robin Williams bike but that it was just like one that was found in his charity bound collection.

I then saw the picture of Williams on another bike and even further wondered where the connection was.

Surfer Rosa provided the link that made me go “maybe”, but the number on the top tube of Williams bike does not seem to be a 30.

Which makes you wonder, why imply a connection except to indicate rarity.

A chance to be Robin Williams adjacent, be the life of the party. Amaze your friends.

I do have a “Barcelona” Masi, the over the top graphics are so blatant.
there are subsets of those, two different fork crowns used and the initial graphics mis spelled Los Angeles as Los Angles.