Finally: a red Italian go-fast bike.
I found this on Craigslist a few states away, and finally negotiated a shipped price. Seller was a knowledgeable bike guy selling for the widow of the original owner. It came as a frame, fork, 600 headset, Cinelli stem and ergo bars, Super Record post and Sella Titanium seat. It has a few rust spots, some chips, and one small ding on the NDS chain stay, but my hope was that the original paint would be decent enough to do some touch up and not need a re-spray. Original seller pictures:





It arrived yesterday. Most of the dark stuff turned out to be dirt, though there were a dozen or so chips, and some sweat-rust. The rust on the chrome fork lug worried me the most, but after a few Naval Jelly treatments it is coming off nicely. A few preliminary shots after cleaning and little touch up. (I had some touch up automotive paint left over from a Vespa I had painted in Porsche Guards Red, which seems to be an almost exact match. Lucky me.)





From my stash, I plan on building it up with a mix of Super Record, C-Record, and 8-speed Ergos. More pics to come...

I have one in a much smaller size. It appears marked as a 61 cm but the head tube length would have me guessing more. Many of these were built by Joe Starck. They are well built. I am not a fan of the Henry James "Masi" head lugs, I guess I would want them to finish off at the head tube shoreline more like the previous designs, but the fork crown has grown on me over time and the bottom bracket shell has nice deep chain stay sockets. I have noted that the accent color painted in the lug details varies a lot with how, if and where it is applied. Often the M on the bottom bracket shell is also paint filled.

Most of these bikes got Super Record "reduced", steel pedal and BB shafts. C Record of course is also possible.

I am thinking of what to do with mine at the moment. Toying with the idea of building it up with modern 11 speed Athena.

As far as geometry goes, at least in the middle range sizes, there was a bit of updating by the 80's from the 70's classic geometry. I do still wonder why the bike was originally named Gran Criterium, it really is more of an all day road bike with just a touch higher BB, at 72-73 mm of drop vs classic Italian road 75mm. (yes, the modern carbon design consensus seems to be 68-70 mm of drop)

All day road bike sounds good to me. The build quality is really very impressive on this frame. Looking forward to riding it.

Update - looking more like a bike. I got the SR cranks and red Silca pump at a local antique store a few years back, and they've been knocking around ever since waiting for a bike. The red is a good match, but the pump is a hair short. Maybe I can stiffen the spring a bit. Recessed SR brakes are on the way, and I still need to source a SR braze-on FD. Other than that it's just cables, bar wrap and chain.

You might be able to elongate the spring that rests inside the pump handle and get it to fit snug. Or, add a coil spring there.
You could also just pay the big dollars and buy a longer pump.

I stretched the spring and that seemed to do the trick - it only needed a cm or so. I suppose I could put some spacer washers behind it as well.

Great looking Masi! I hear the red ones are fastest.

Re the pump, might it fit along the rear seat stay? (please refer to rule #30)

Update:


I routed the shift cables to the opposite sides so they cross under the DT, like I've seen on a few projects in the Retro Roadies thread. It makes for cleaner routing around the head tube, though it looks like I'll need some of those tiny rubber cable guide frame protector donut thingies to keep the cables off the paint. It is 7-speed Shimergo with a Sunrace R30 7 speed 13-25t freewheel and a Sram PC-870 chain. The C-record rear hub re-spaced nicely. Last piece needed is a pair of Super Record brakes which are on the way from a member in Mexico. Can't wait to ride it.

I would think that crossing the shift cables would place the rear cable pretty close to the tire, but then perhaps you have a debris scraper for the side wall.

This makes me want to finish putting mine back together, I left the stem exchange job half done.
With my last physical there was the realization that I have lost a bit of length in the torso, gravity strikes back.
I reduced my long term stable distance from the saddle to bars by 1 cm, works pretty well.

Final update (for now). Went for a ride today, and I like it very much. The Shimergo 8->7 shifting works great. The crossed cables cross under the downtube, so they go to the correct BB grooves. I ended up using second gen 8-speed Ergos, since the 1st gen I had on it need a rebuild. There are a few things to tweak - not sure about the seat, might want a shorter stem, and it needs some new tires to be properly done. But for now it's a great ride.

Very classy. Cleaned up well and looks good. Did the pump not work out for you?

Looks great!

I took the pump off so as not to alert the Rule 31 police. It actually fits fine, and there is, after all, a pump bump on the head tube.

Looks great. I have an 89 that's just a little too big for me. Hasn't been ridden in a couple of years but it is a great bike.

They got the frame pump rule wrong. When you put the pump back on make sure you spin it around so the feet on the pump head fit right into the intersection of the toptube and seattube. It would be a shame if the pump fell off and was ruined.