Lo Sport Illustrato 06/15/1950

A great find at l'Eroica in October was a stack of old cycling publications! Download the first offering here. It's Lo Sport Illustrato from June 15, 1950, and it covers hugo Koblet's Giro victory. A must for fans of la Pédaleur de Charme

The Cambio Corsa t-shirt

The long weekend has been good to get out some of those lingering projects. I had this idea for a while now, so I got out my meager Illustrator skills and traced an old design to make this t-shirt. The idea would be to find someone to print some up on a high-quality shirt and take to l'Eroica for a VERY limited run for friends. Any interest?

"It was good enough for Fausto/Gino, so it's good enough for me" and on the back "All I need is two levers and four gears" ... not literally, but that's my best English interpretation at least.

A Gloria Christmas, part 2

So my old bike collecting bug has gotten a little out of control in just one year's time. However, when I met Paolo (of Biciclette e Decadence fame) and found out about a friend of his who might consider selling what is my Holy Grail bike, I couldn't pass up. The Gloria Garibaldina is considered by many to be the ultimate Italian vintage bike to own. There were quite a few made, as Gloria was a goliath company until about 1960, but few survived in good, original condition (not that this one is totally original, far from it).

Gloria developed a way to pump out these fine frames in a large number for the time. One way of doing so was to stamp the head tube and distinct flower-shaped 'lugs' from a sheet, roll it and then weld the seam. If you pull the fork out and look inside, you'll see that the flower 'lugs' are in fact recessed from the stamping process! That means that the flower lugs this bike is famous for are not even really lugs! Add to it that many of the components were branded with "Gloria", the unique rear dropouts, and the nickel-plated 'lugs' and you end up with a beautiful representation of the highest bicycle technology of the day.

I'm only going to post this one photo for now, as I don't want anyone else to find it and outbid me! I hope to pick it up on the way home from Puglia. It's safe to say that my collecting is officially over because to me, it doesn't get much better than this!

PS - an update on Mrs. Masini's Gloria... the Maasland told me last night that the grips are made of ox horn!

A VERY Dachshund Christmas

Mrs. Masini commissioned these two paintings of our "children" for me for Christmas. They're spectacular!

Painted by our (also ex-pat) good friend Rachel, these Elizabethan-style portraits are always what I wanted to capture these two spoiled dogs. Now, they can live on forever in their finest garb! With a big heart and a shared passion for dogs, Rachel donates part of the proceeds to animal charities. Ours went to SPCA International's Operation Baghdad Pups project, which gets soldiers' dogs out of Iraq and Afghanistan.

A Gloria Christmas... part 1

Merry Christmas to all, first off! You may notice some ongoing changes to the layout of the blog - I'm done with Disqus. It basically led to zero comments this year, so it's back to Google's stock comment system. I'll be tweaking over the next few days... but let's talk Christmas!

We finally got some snow to stick here in Basel yesterday. It's been coming down in tiny little flakes for the past day and a half, so it's a white one here.

I've been holding out on posting this Gloria ladie's city bike until after I showed it to the Mrs. on Christmas day. It was promised to be done by my restorer, but he's Italian... sooo. Anyway, I can't wait to see it. We'll be in the area on Monday on our way to Puglia for New Year's. Note the internal rod brakes... very cool.

And Suddenly... the Cicli Masini Headbadge!

Just one day after getting the decals, I got an email from Jen Green with this...!

Cicli Masini Frame Decals... Ready!

I just picked up this VERY limited (in fact, you see all of it in the photo) run of Cicli Masini frame sticker kits. Production update of the 1950 Paris-Roubaix equipped frame: it's back from chrome, along with some of the parts. My post-Christmas trip to Puglia will include stops to Ciöcc to drop off the stickers, Enzo's to get the P-R shifter and some brakes, Ermes' to get the P-R repro axle, and then hopefully again to Ciöcc to pick up the painted/finished frame!

Yes, Mrs. Masini is a patient person!

Visit to Mavic

Last week I made my annual visit to Liquigas-sponsor and Cannondale partner Mavic. We did the usual contract details, material requests and questions... all after a very nice French lunch! Ivan Basso joined in the trip, as Mavic had organized a "day of champions" presentation to their staff with a number of guests also from the mtb and tri worlds.

Part of this included a nice presentation of the company's history projected onto a wall. From this, I was greeted by the usual ball-busting by mechanic-to-the-stars Archetti and Mario Scirea, when this photo came up... "Hey Masini, that's you!"

In fact, it was Antonin Magne, the first winner of the Tour de France on an alloy (Mavic-made) rim. From Mavic's site - "In the 1934 Tour de France, Antonin Magne tested these new rims in the utmost secrecy–they were banned by the rules, and so were painted in wood colors. Antonin Magne won the yellow jersey."

Ciclomuseo Gino Bartali

I recently had the chance to get to the Bartali museum in Ponte a Ema, just south of Florence. Once you're lucky enough to find it, try your luck at finding a parking spot in this tiny little village!

Once inside, you'll work your way up to the second floor, which houses various memorabilia of not only Gino, but various vintage bikes, photos, jerseys... the usual. There were three bikes in particular that were of interest to me. One was the Galmozzi-made track bike, which was under glass so the photos didn't turn out. Same goes for an early Bartali model. But I did manage to salvage this one... a Bartali mounted with the Nieddu-made Cervino shifter. Towards the end of his career, Gino invested into this system, which would eventually fade from memory after the introduction of the Campagnolo derailleur.

The museum is definitely worth the trip if you are near Florence. While not as bike-centric as the Bevilacqua collection, it has a decent amount of equipment to go along with the immensely important history of Gino.

Cicli Masini, Serial Number 001!

Well, not exactly. This is the design that's in my head at least. That old green Paris-Roubaix frame should eventually turn into this. Call it my winter project. I hope to have a P-R bike, the Galmozzi Cambio Corsa, and after coversion - the Legnano should be my Vittoria-Margherita example. In my book, that's the big three from Italy as far as shifting systems go.

Details on this will be a handmade head tube badge and an carved Brooks saddle. Ciocc keeps threatening to see if he can't immortalize the brand with an old-school metal hinged logo mask for the downtube. Check the photo of the example he pulled out - Cicli Gamba, mod. Record.

I sanded the frame already and it looks great. The fork was rough and didn't match the lugs at all. Ciocc found another one for me that was nicer but still not a perfect match. I'm going with that one. He bent the legs out a bit and will put on the much-older dropout for me. Anyone have a better match for the "Riviera" style lugs?