We have in our shop a bike that has stirred up a bit of controversy. The bike is a Masi 3V, supposedly a limited edition 68 out of 100. Serial number is M56 000P68 0168, full Dura-Ace 7402 gruppo. All decals are in cyrillic font. Anyone have any information on this model? Pictures can be viewed at:
www.sellwoodcycle.com/masi/index.htm

Thanks,
Steven Landon

Steve,

The Russian Masi's were built to commemorate the
Russian wins on masi bikes I believe ridden by Ekimov
et. al. in the 1988 Seoul olympics. The bikes were built
between Aug 1990 and Jan 1991.
They were produced by Masi US (San Marco location)
limited to 100 bikes, built by Joe Starck and company and painted by Jim Allen. They were not ridden by the
actual Russian Team. They are 3V Volumetrica

There is alot more information in the Classic Rendezvous
archives, which is where I got most of my info (I posted a question about one that was up on e-bay a while back).

Marty

Steve,
Marty is right about the Russian Masi's. They were all the Team 3V's. Color was ultra violet. Gruppo was Mavic. I lived in southeast Pennsylvania and saw the Russian team start the Tour DuPont in Willmington in 1989 or 1990 and again in 1990 or 1991. Just before their first race about a dozen of the bikes were seen at the mavic distribution headquarters in West Chester, PA. I bought a Team 3V the following year from Cycles byKlye near West Chester. The Russians were sponsored by DuPont BTW. The last year I saw them they were on custom made Team 3V time trial bikes. They looked like the rad model but were using flat tubes. Those have got to be very rare. I'm guessing you have a commorative model. Also rare I would guess.

I've got #1 of 100. Frame is a 57,mint condition,built with period DA.

Cool!

July or so in '90 was my last month at Masi, so unless they pulled some from stock, I didn't make them.

Can you give us some lore? I'm very interested in knowing how the building was split up amongst the egos of five (or more?) of the worlds finest builders.

Danny

Wow! this must be a record for resurrected threads.

The Masi 3V CCCP (Ma3N) bike was built in 1990 for the Russian National Team. However, the CCCP (USSR) began to break up in early 1990 and collapsed in 1991. The Team never used the bikes. Because Masi had already built the bikes, following the break up of the CCCP (USSR) Masi decided to number the frame sets and sell the Ma3N CCCP as a limited edition.

NOW this is the record for resurrected threads , 9 years !

They built 100 frames for the Russian National Team? And they built them in the US? Really?

I remember, anything that had to do with USSR back then was considered cool so all sorts of cheap watches, t-shirts, and decorative chachkies were being sold everywhere, even though they weren't made in Russia. I guess that included Masi bikes.
What bugs me about limited edition items like these 100 bikes is they are mostly cherished for the low number of them made more than if they had something to them that makes them really more superior to another bike built with the same components and materials, but does not have the fancy Cyrillic letters and low serial number on them.....but people will still pay that maybe extra couple of thousand dollars for the paintjob. Just human nature I guess....
Chombi

Well said.

Most photo's I've seen of the russian team in the 80's include soviet red Colnago's. Soviets on Italian bikes seem a little weird, until you remember that communism was huge in post war Europe, especially in Italy/

I welded a couple of Ti Masi frames in California in about 92 or 93.

I've got a video of the 1991 Tour Dupont. The Russian team are all riding dark purple or violet Masi bikes with CCCP in large yellow letters on the top tube. They are also wearing a Specialized kit that says CCCP and McDonalds. The bikes look super cool but they say MASI not MA3N.

This thread's been brought back FOUR times now, but there are no pictures. (OPs are gone). Anyone?

It's like a zombie...you have destroy its brain to kill it.

sellwoodcycle, jtratza, TomVeloria, we hardly knew you!

Newbie from 2003, lol.

Sorry to continue with this thread I just thought maybe someone out there would like to see mine. #27 out of the 100 Masi 3V CCCP limited edition. This one came with full C-record. All of the above threads I believe to be correct. I can send pics to any interested person, contact me at fastereddy@hotmail.com thanks.

Masi of the USA did a number of special editions. The "Russian" bikes, the "Barcelona" bikes and the 60th anniv. Diamond Jubilee editions.
100 Russian, 200 Barcelona, and I think 100 of the Diamond Jubilee bikes. The first two get some notice. the last has really poor graphic design in my view. I have a Barcelona, I bought just because I like the outrageous graphics. The rare ones are the examples with the typographical error, mine is not one of those.

Just another 3V, good bike, light, reasonably stiffer over a traditional sized tubed frame. Chainstays start at 25 mm in diameter which helps a might.
These all came as frame sets, shops built them up on spec or for a customer.

eddy, you could just post pics here in the thread...

Here are some pictures of fastereddy's Masi:













Brent

^ dream bike! But Eddy, get that chain fixed and remove the zip ties