lippy masi?
 

need your help again:) picked up this masi. got some basic feedback from a few of you the it may have been made my Lippy. well, thats what i was told as well. I have some pics on photobucket but arent too sure how to download them. tell me how so you can see the pics to help id the bike. thanks again joe e

Joe, can you simply copy and paste a link to the photobucket pics?

That might help.

lippy masi
 

sure but im afraid im a computer moron. do i have to go to the photobucket pictures first? im afraid i need step by step help. ive got 4 pretty good pics, including the fork

If you load the pictures up to a 3rd party site such as photobucket, you can at least type the link to those pictures so we can look at them.

The person I know of who has the best capability to sort through all the ins and outs of Masi S/Ns, dating, and assessment of origin is Bob Hovey. Check out his site. If you can get what he has printed up there and tell us about your assessments against Hovey's criteria, I bet we can get a good understanding of your bike.

I have a late '80s GC that is rather odd. It was made either by Roberson, Lippy, or Kirkbride. I can't narrow mine down any farther than that. My S/N is within the range covered in Rob Roberson's list, but the size does not match the size Rob identifies for that number. Mine is marked and measures 53 cm, but Roberson identifies it as a 58. So you do need to be real careful.

masi pictures
 

i hope these will help id my masi. no serial number. very hard to see frame size stamped on bottom.http://photobucket.com/englert

The Hovey site is pretty good, something does not work from your statement, for a late 80's Lippy and Roberson were long gone. Roberson left for personal (personnel driven) in like 1983-84 at the latest.
Unless the frame was lingering stock, which could happen but not likely, not a Lippy either if from the late 80's. Lippy was done with framebuilding long before.

For a while there were two building sites, Rancho Santa Fe where Roberson and one other assistant periodically worked and San Marcos where Moulton, and others later worked. At some point, duplicate frame numbers got stamped, either by different parties or by error, if I remember correctly this was 1980 or 1981. As to why two sites? I bet the accountant endorsed using an outbuilding for manufacturing, makes it very easy then to write part of the residence off.

Joe-

The images come up at thumbnail size only even when viewed full size. You asked for views to shoot in another thread, none of them are in this set.

All I can tell from these images is that it has the later Masi America seat tube bands and it has a chromed fork crown.

Sorry, my bad, my Masi is late 1980, not late '80s.

My bike was originally sold at Escondido Cycles, at that time owned by Ted Kirkbride. Its S/N overlaps Roberson's list and does not match his list. Bob Hovey thought TK was branding some of his custom frames Masi, building them to customer sizings but in the Masi style. In the arcanity of Masi post-Faliero, I'm not sure what this all suggests.

I don't see any of Joe's pictures.

ok, ill make the pics bigger. the masi america decals are from when. i still believe its 1976 lippy?? check out new pics.http://photobucket.com/englert

I don't see any pics to check out.

lippy masi
 

lippy masi
 

i cant get these darn photo bucket pics to show up here thisis the link http://photobucket.com/englert

lippy masi
 

yay. that works. anyway check those out. the guy i bought this from sent a bunch of pics and info to hovey and hes the one that thought it was a lippy 76 masi. those made in america decals cant be that new because the 81 mas i saw did not have them and it had braze on rear brake cable mounts while this one does not. it has the campy clips. i figure that the red white blue stars made in america might be connected with the bicentennial. any thoughts on that?

The only really partly useful image is of the front of the bike of the three that come up, but four are cited in the album. Of curiosity is the black dot or hole on the top of the chain stay bridge in another image.

Note that there is a shadow between the lower head lug and the lower headset chrome cup on the frame. The frame was faced without benefit of the inside chamfer that is typical and initiated by Masi.

Its a contract frame, by whom, at this point I have no idea. Not enough info. The advisories past on what to image were ignored. So, no more help.

Double stamping of units would be a way to dodge royalties to Faliero. Clever.

for your viewing pleasure:

http://i669.photobucket.com/albums/v...t/IMG_1296.jpg


http://i669.photobucket.com/albums/v...t/IMG_1295.jpg


http://i669.photobucket.com/albums/v...t/IMG_1301.jpg


http://i669.photobucket.com/albums/v...t/IMG_1302.jpg


http://i669.photobucket.com/albums/v...t/IMG_1298.jpg

masi lippy
 

sorry me r. but i have no camera-believe it or not- my friend took these pics while i was not home for me. i guess she didnt get the pics you wanted but i was hoping you or maybe mr p or someone else could tell me more

From the photos, the fork does seem to have the dogleg bend I would associate with a Lippy frame - the curve appears to straighten at the bottom rather than continuing all the way to the drop outs. Perhaps repechage could comment on that for us ...

The upper and lower head lugs look just like those on mine. The fork crown is very similar to mine, too, I think a Fischer.

The decals could be the product of a repaint - I don't know if such a red was one of the colors back then. My 1980 does not have Masi America decals on the seat tube.

Not sure - my stamps were only struck once. My serial number appears on Roberson's list, but he shows my S/N as a size 58 and mine is marked as a 53 and measures out to a 53.

One hypothesis is the Ted owned the name at that time, and decided as teh owner he had the right to assign S/Ns, so he did.

lippy masi
 

thanks for putting those pics up. dont know how you did that but thanks. by the way it is not a repaint-there is some little pebble size paint missing on bottom due to the orig. owner riding in newly paved road. the tar stuck to paint on bottom and took some right off.

Let me be clear, two units share a serial number, royalties paid only on one unit. It was not expected that two bikes would share a number. Or, TK builds a frame at his shop. the missing parts, lugs tubing dropouts just vanish in the shrinkage created by minor goofs that are tossed out and expected of a normal production operation.

In the early 80's the Masi name in the USA was still owned by the original licensee.

The bike most likely has original paint. Joe got good information from the seller, D.S.. He just wants more than he is willing to reasearch himself.