hello all. i was wondering if anyone could give me some insight on a masi gc i purchased. on the steer tube it is stamped M49A and then 6 73... the first questiion naturally is california of italian? and also is 6 73 the month and date of production? its a sweet bike either way, i just was hoping to get some claricication on its origins and story. thanks

It sounds like an Italian GC built in June of 1973. But you say it says M49A on the fork - how about the BB shell?
(None of those numbers is likely a serial number, by the way: more likely the "M" stands for "Milano" and the "49" is the size in cm - sounds like a very small bike. Masi, like Colnago, De Rosa, and others, wasn't using serial numbers at the time.)

https://bhovey.com/Masi/MasiUSA.htm

Wrong registry - at least based on the 6 73 fork steerer stamping. Pics always help, though.

As said, its Italian, reads like the recent ebay bike. If so, nice.

Now, what can you make of that soup of numbers and letters?
Well, the small bikes got forks matched to them early it seems, as the steerer had to be positioned to insure that a headset and stem would fit.

Here is a sampling of identifiers:

https://bhovey.com/Masi/MasiItaly.htm

If it was American, its much easier:

https://bhovey.com/Masi/masidates.htm

thanks thats what i was thinking, any thoughts to the letter A though?
on the masi registry most italian bikes with the letter M and frame size to follow didnt have any letter after. so the A has my curiousity.....

You still haven't let us know whether the SN on the BB matches exactly the one on the fork. If you look at the registry, there are some bikes where the forks have some different lettering from the BB's. Perhaps more than one frame the same size was built at the same time and the additional letters were intended to match the frame with the right fork. There are definitely some unexplained anomalies when it comes to the markings on Italian Masis from that era and earlier (my circa '69 Special bears the marking S.F.59.5).

My 1973 Italian Masi has S58.5S which was a mystery, however Alberto Masi knew exactly what the letters stood for. I wish some of this stuff was written down for us future collectors :-) BTW build date 3 73 stamped on steerer.

The letter A is it the same size as the other characters? If the A is a different font or different size it sounds to me like you have a repainted Italian bike. Alberto often put letters and numbers on frames and forks when they got repainted.

Somtimes, on the underside of the chainstays. My bike - sold to me by Citoyen du Monde in fact - has one of those repaint numbers on one chainstay tang.

Getting info is a problem, Masi it seems did not want to let on that he used subcontractors.

So, Alberto knew exactly what the letters stood for, but you are not telling either. It will be lost to the either. Bob Hovey has tried to document the markings, but I don't see him making many claims for the Italian ones.

If one looks closely at images, there are often some details that frames with the same stamp share, but subject to more verification, I mean does three make a trend as to who made it, or where it came?

They are all Italian Masis. There is an evolution as time went on.

Just make mine a first generation graphics package or twin plate crown.

I don't think that was exclusive to Masi for tracking repaints. But there have been a number of Masis that do have that and appear repainted.

Mine was for sure - the GC decals were a dead giveaway.

I just became the owner of a GC frame with MA56 on the B.B. also MA56 and 9 73 on the steerer, somebody added braze-ons with chrome forks and stays in the past which have been painted over...

Alberto Masi said the S58.5S stood for Sammontana Team built for Mauro Simonetti. I asked Bob Hovey about this and he thought that there was no reason to query what Alberto said. Bob Hovey also said that there was a strange quirk with Masi team bikes many of which are built to a .5 cm size.

Mike.

Interesting. Bob originally thought mine might be a team bike of some kind (S.F.59.5 as per post above). Wonder who "S.F." was, if anyone. The bike also has the first generation Campagnolo brakes, which I suspect are original, and might also be a clue that it was a team bike.

That is interesting - what is the build date? Just saw that it is circa 1969. I would go from there and do a search looking at riders from the period. You might come up with something.

Mike.