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Comments - Ocean Beach, grazing bison, and bike lust
August 10, 2009
Hey! Who @ CC writes this blog? Is it Andy or someone else? I'd love to chat w/ the writer since we probably passed each other in GGP years ago where I still ride today.
At the time, I'd just built up a Davidson frame w/ Ultegra that I still ride today. It's steel, it's still sublime but the siren call of carbon ala R3SL ios hard to resist...
Chris
lincolnc AT pacbell.net
- Chris Lincoln, San Francisco
July 01, 2009
There are bikes made of steel, custom, hand built, from "better" materials out there today. The list of builders is long and distinct. If you all liked the steel Masi's so much, why not purchase one of these and not whine about what a group of up and coming talented riders from the mid-west are trying to achieve. Last time I checked, this site was pretty much an over-priced web outlet catering to the hipster crowd.
- Earl, Buffalo
June 28, 2009
I love your post. I am proud owner of a Masi 3V purchased while I was a medical student in Bologna, Italy. I purchased the bike in '86 with fully Campagnolo. I was easy to do at that time for a student since the exchange rate was in my favor. At that time it was THE bike to have. Colonago was know as a "sell out" brand in the local racing circles. Masi was the purest purchase. I traded in my Colonago Master. The 3V was the perfect bike for the type of riding we did, long k's with lost of long climbs. I never realized how much a frame can change the riding experience, but when I started climbing on my 3V I realized that I can climb. It was comfortable beyond belief.
It's sad to see what has become of this once iconic brand. But to some extent, it is what the whole Italian bike industry suffers from. The Italian bike industry was about small highly skilled artisans who could weld steel together like no one else. It was about invention and skill. Carbon Italian bikes to me are not the same thing. Carbon Colnago's, no,carbon Pinarello's no. That is not Italian. It's like eating whole wheat pasta. Maybe it's better for you, but the real deal is made from semolina. When a friend of mine wanted a 3V we traveled to Vigorelli to be measured by Alberto Masi, it was like walking in to a temple. Somewhere near by a dirty welder smoking a cigarette was making another piece of art. Putting an old workd decal on a Asian carbon is similar to the demise of Masi. Maybe not as dramatic as the demise of Masi, but on the whole it represents the end of an era. I arrived in Italy in '81 and was there to '97. I was lucky enough to catch to end of the golden era of Italian frame building.
- Joe, New York
June 27, 2009
Not to speak for anyone - or to defend anyone who can obviously defend themselves - but I thought what he said was that once Masi was one thing (storied brand, hand-crafted) and now it is something else (a brand-name for nice bikes).
That's what I read anyway.
- Mike, in Utah now
June 26, 2009
So are you saying not one thing you sell in that store is cookie cutter China made gitch? Whatever Rapha-diva. Only name for Industry guy ranking on a some local racers trying to live their dream? Douchebag!
- Will C., Realityville, MA
June 26, 2009
Love the post....you always take me back to the heart of cycling...those formative days in the late 80's/90's when anything cycling was good. When a friend had a 3V that was small and beat and perfect - rolls saddle and all. My faorite bike...could be that first frame up build I ever did - Faggin with Triomphe and I thought I'd made it big time!! doughy and old cat 2
- Matt, Sunnyvale
June 26, 2009
It may not be to do with the bike. I had the first finest bike I owned (Ellis Briggs custom 653 with Campag Chorus) when I was 21 (in 1994). Now I have for 18 months been riding my second faultless bike. Maybe it's an astronomical thing like Halley's comet.....
- Matthew, Kippax
June 26, 2009
The Masi 3V was the frameset that I coveted as a poor college student in the '80's. Back then, I could afford a single Columbus SL-tubed racing bike, but nothing else. I finally got a chance to buy a NOS 3V a few years ago and had it built up with Nuovo Record, just like the old days. The bike looked fantastic and handled great. But the over-sized tubing beat the crap out of me. It was a really harsh ride for me (I'm around 150 lbs). Careful what you wish for!
- Marco, Toronto
June 25, 2009
I, too, had a Masi "back in the day". It was one of the last Gran Criteriums to come out of Italy before they came stateside. I was just a kid, and bought it from the Bicycle Barn in Sacramento - with the money I earned from mowing lawns and cleaning pools. $750 bucks if I remember.
I later went on to wrench at the Bicycle Barn and have great memories of that bike. I remember rotating the bike in the workstand and peering between the blades into the steerer and the finish looked almost as flawless as the rest of the bike. Incredible craftsmanship. But, I guess I'm the exception too. As much as I loved that bike, I'm in better shape today. My Ultegra equipped Cannondale is not art - it's just a tool. I'll never be able to afford that kind of quality again, but it usually doesn't matter. I've got the memories and I've got my imagination.
Thanks for your writing, even when (especially when) it's not PC.
- Mike, in Utah now
June 25, 2009
Scotty Sensitive Bloggers
- Bill, nor cal
June 25, 2009
Quick mention..................MASI supported the San Diego Bike Club during the 80's, good memories.
My all time favorite bike> Steel Tommassini, blue with amazing detail. 1983 (my grandpa sold it by accident a few years back)
my bike before that was a pearl white olmo. i sold it to get the tommassini and record grouppo.
all good memories
- bill, nor cal
June 24, 2009
Whiners...Quit reading this blog so we do not have to hear about where you intend to shop in the future.
- toby, Saramento
June 24, 2009
I don't have anything to add to this other than to state that making fun of ProTour guys is one thing, but when then beam of cynicsm is directed at a bunch of guys you're friends with it feels... different.
- AH, Indy
June 24, 2009
Just shopping around for some CeramicSpeed pulleys and bottom brackets when I noticed my 'dear' friends at Comp. Cyclist are one of the few familiar US online retailers that stock these items. I'm gonna vote with my dollar and take my business to one of the 2nd or 3rd listings in google where the parts are a bit cheaper and I'm not supporting these folks. It's ironic because before these posts became so vitriolic I would make a point to do business here because I liked the ad copy and good taste in selection. Shame on me.
- Phil, Austin
June 24, 2009
Does anyone else notice that this PawleeWalnutz guy seems to live on this blog? He posts a lot of comments, which is kinda weird. Anyway, I don't see any problem with the author's remarks. He does it to get a rise out of folks, and he's succeeding. He's kind of a troll on his own blog, which is lame. He should go do that elsewhere and be sincere in his own sphere. In fact, I bet several of these comments below are from him just to keep the debate stoked. It's a little insane, which this guy definitely is.
- Chris, Herndon, VA
June 24, 2009
I wait each week for you post!
It is the one thing I truly look forward to reading!!!!!
Please don't change! I buy from you, I will continue to buy from you!
- Doughy Cat 1, North Cakkalakkie
June 24, 2009
Where's the self righteous outrage been for the last month over jabs taken at Tom Danielson? Or is that O'kay because you don't work for his team/race at the same level and feel insulted yourself? One adjective in an otherwise great piece and everyone's up on their high horse.
- Adam, Hamilton
June 24, 2009
Doughy? Are you serious?
When was the last time YOU lined up for a Pro/1/2 race? I don't mind you knockin' a brand or a product for the sake of some reminiscent hyperbole, but when you beat on domestic racers trying to make a living AND doing a better job than you are, it comes off as out of character and vindictive. If you're that bent about the braze-on snapping off, move one; it's not the Kenda team's fault.
- Hubert, San Diego, CA
June 23, 2009
Free dating advice from the Badger? BWAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!! I guess now I can cancel my subscription to e-Harmony .
- PawleeWalnutz, NYC, Where Badgers Are Roadkill
June 23, 2009
It leaves me a bit dumbfounded how personally people take this blog. The writer uses a bit of hyperbole, overstatement, mentions that a bike that once ranked among the crown jewels of Italian manufacturing isn't perhaps what it used to be, refers to a mid-western team as "doughy", and you'd think he called their mothers whores.
I, having no affiliation with the team or brand, did not read these as mean-spirited attacks. Rather, it seemed to me the author was building drama. Is it really necessary for those affiliated with the team and brand to be so precious with themselves?
- Blake, Denver
June 23, 2009
had a steel colnago I had to sell to help buy a house, I weep still and that was 6 years ago. I have a stable again but that Casino yellow Tecnos is the missing piece. Let's all bow our heads for long lost rides......as the incredible hulk piano music plays
- Hung low, Philly
June 23, 2009
@PawleeWalnutz, NYC: Your obsequiousness is the only thing cloying. You obviously have a crush on the author of this blog; ask him for a date already.
- Bernard Hinault, Normandy
June 23, 2009
"...did not read these as mean-spirited attacks." Oh heaven forbid that anyone in the blogoshpere actually expresses and opinion that isn't cloyingly sanitized or loaded with qualifiers that ooze political correctness. If I want syrup, I'll go to IHOP. As for all the amatuer economists and marketers predicting a decline in CC business over these strong opinions: I'll wager that there are 2 new customers for every tosser posting some version of the "I'm-never-gonna-buy-crap-from-you-ever-again" refrain.
- PawleeWalnutz, NYC,
June 23, 2009
The way you write, it's unfair you had to scuffle for so long. There's magic in your prose, and it sounds like you've found it again in your ride.
- Tom, Alexandria, VA
June 23, 2009
Walter PPK - Nice!
- joao, NYC
June 23, 2009
I get it. I loved the piece & the "piece"(Walther PPK)!
- jIM, TROY,NY
June 23, 2009
Wow - you guys need some thicker skin. Keep up the great writing.
- Doughy Guy (for real), Brooklyn, NY
June 23, 2009
I have to agree with the bike that I had when the fitness was at its best Trek 1500 aluminum with Shimano 105 I beat that thing to death with sprints for the town lines snapped the crank, broke spokes, broke the shifter boss's but the bike kept coming back for more eventually gave it away for $50 to someone else who had just started cycling and they fell in love with riding due to this bike. It is just a a means of transportation if you do not have love and passion for the feeling of the wheels humming on the pavement.
- J. S. H., Hackensack, NJ
June 23, 2009
I can't remember ever being impressed with the magnanimity of even one of your well-written pieces. Mean people do suck, you know.
Try talking to Mark Hekman (you will have to do so before or after a race, since at your very fittest, you couldn't have held his wheel for even one lap at Athens). Mark is one of the riders you belittled in your latest little piece of narcissism. If you were to make the effort to have this cursory conversation, you wouldl find him to be a very nice person. If you delved a little deeper, you would find that he is a classically trained musician. SO, he can ride you off his wheel while warming down, and he can actually earn money playing classical music. You shill ridiculously overpriced toys to "doughy" rich people, and write these harmless, usually mean-spirited, inconsequential screeds.
I don't think we can call it even.
- Greg, Knoxville
June 23, 2009
Hey man...like...don't trash Ocean Beach.
To call the part of Golden Gate park between ocean beach and the bison paddock a "grade" of any sort is an insult to Filbert St.
- Phil, San Francisco Native
June 23, 2009
I ride a weekly training ride with some of the Kenda guys. While not the fastest members of the ride, they are pretty respectable and far from "doughy." That comment seems uncalled for.
- Patrick, Columbus, OH
June 23, 2009
As a former industry guy, I find the disparaging remarks counter productive. Additionally, they take away from the interesing aspects of the post that resonate with all of us who love cycling. A quick glance at the comments reveals the negativity made more of an impact than the positivity of a great bike.
- Jay, Needham
June 23, 2009
I ride a weekly training ride with some of the Kenda guys. While not the fastest members of the ride, they are pretty respectable and far from "doughy." That comment seems uncalled for.
- Patrick, Columbus, OH
June 23, 2009
This was a great post - your favorite bike is the bike you had when you obtained your best fitness. So true. You then negate it by calling the Kenda team "doughy." I have no idea what purpose this serves? I just don't get it.
- Tom, DC
June 23, 2009
First, a 38 year old dude named LA just lapped a bunch of "pros" that get paid 15k a year and sleep in their vans the night before the race. Great way to train for a Grand Tour. Hey, it worked for Levi at the Giro right? Not. I owned MASI #27 from the Carlsbad factory. It was built by Mario Confente. Makes me sad to think it's gone. A long time ago. Time for an espresso.
- REG, San Francisco
June 23, 2009
I can tell you my favorite bike of all time. It was a 2nd generation Giant TCR. Aluminum model. You are correct in stating that most people find the bike the like the best was when they had the most fitness. I had this thing decked out with a mix of Record and Chorus 9 speed parts, and I had one of the best race season of my life. This bike also fit the bill of light/cheap/stiff all in one.
I had that thing for 3 seasons before I got rid of it for a Look 361 and now a Look 555.
I have very fond memories of that bike, and while I like my 555, it isn't the same as the TCR.
Now that racing is someting I do now and then, and the wife, house, job, "just riding" take precedence over racing, there is a certain joy in all bikes I own, but just a special fondness for the old TCR
- Peter, Concord, NH
June 23, 2009
I can't tell you how much I enjoy this blog along with the reader comments each and every week! As someone replied earlier, don't round off the edges.....
- JoeB, TX
June 23, 2009
Handguns are cool.... so much easier to kill someone with than a bicycle. Man, I wish I lived in country where there was constitutional protection for guns: I'd carry one all the time, especially on my bike.
- Roadent, Toronto
June 23, 2009
Sup with the 9mm as a plaything? Hollowpoints too?
- Clay, Downers Grove
June 23, 2009
First, A 38 Year Old Dude named LA just lapped a bunch of PROS in Nevada City so all of you are definitely third rate, except Ben Jacques-Maynes of course. Secondly, Lets never pretend that when Ernesto Colnago and other great builders pass on in life that something isn’t lost in the machines and brand they created. They can live on with passion and vision by the employees and new owners but there is something about hearing how Ernesto draws bike designs on napkins when he is at restaurants that make me believe in what he does.
- Luke, Chicago
June 22, 2009
I mean Brother!
- Jon, Albuquerque, NM
June 22, 2009
Amen Bother!
- Jon, Albuquerque, NM
June 22, 2009
Based on how bent Chad got by the word "doughy" it really sounds like a certain team needs to add a few sit ups to their work out program. Keep up the great writing and thank you for continuing to have the balls to have an opinion.
- Todd, Los Angeles
June 22, 2009
I never would have guessed Cervelo from an old Masi lover. I expected Pegoretti.
I will never again see a thread debate centered around the word "doughy."
Brendan's unpredictably snarky, which makes for interesting reading if not universal love. I hope (but doubt) this blog lasts for a decade, because I would expect to watch the edges getting rounded by time, leaving a rich, nuanced patina on a core of observant writing.
- Joey Doughy, Middlebrow, USA
June 22, 2009
Without repeating too much of what others have already said, I must chime in about your idiotic and senseless jabs at the Kenda/Inferno/A&F team. Having had the opportunity and honor to compete side by side with these talented and dedicated athletes, it makes me question whether you have ever raced in the same field with them (or are you a cat. 4?),seen them compete, or even done any research on their palmares. Your remarks only alienate you further from the core audience you are attempting to reach, and will only ring true with other uppity, over-the-hill losers who know they could never keep up with any one of the riders with the ability of the Kenda team. I think your full-retail pricing has finally seen its match now that the internet-savvy consumers have found better deals left and right (Di2 groups for $5500-are you joking? I can get it for $3600 all day long), and you are taking out your frustrations on one of the few low-budget-but truly PRO teams in the US. Keep it up Kenda-you've got plenty of fans out there!
- Phil, Greenville, SC
June 22, 2009
I've been laboring over whether or not to post a comment at all, but I have to at least thank the folks who have offered support of the Kenda team as well as the Masi brand. I had to fight off the desire to fire off an angry reply and then the urge to "sick the lawyers on you". But then I realized that was feeding into exactly the things that have gone wrong with the bike industry (as well as others) and that just made me sad. I love what I do for a living and the industry I am blessed to work in.
In defense of the team riders, I have to echo Chad; hard to call 2007 Athens winner Mark Hekman "doughy". Or 2008 UCI Track Omnium World Champion Hayden Godfrey "doughy". For that matter, none of the guys I have met on the team are "doughy". Chad does deserve applause, rather than ridicule, for the teams he has put together over the years. If you had any idea of the sacrifices he has personally made to support and fund the team and riders, you would have a renewed respect for the team and the riders lucky to be a part of it. As for Masi, I won't spend too much time defending what we do and why. I have done that plenty in the nearly 5 years I have been here as the Brand Manager. I will simply say that we are very proud of our bikes. We're also proud of working with the very same builders in Asia who produce such venerable brands as Colnago and the Cervelo ridden by the author. We're far from "open mold" and we made some fantastic 3V reproductions a few years ago- using the very 80's lugs that were sitting in a box in Ted Kirkbride's workshop and brazed together by Ted and Russ Denny... Faliero Masi brought Masi to the US in the early 70's, arguably creating what would be considered the heyday of Masi history. When Faliero returned to Italy, he left the brand with Ted and Ted then sold it many years later to Haro... so we're far from being passed around like the village bicycle. The article would have read as well- if not better- without the slanderous aside. It added nothing to the article's trip down bike memory lane. We like our bikes, we like the team we sponsor and we are happy to have friends and fans still. Sorry that what we do and who we are has offended the author to such a degree.
Tim Jackson- Masi Brand Manager
- Tim, San Diego
June 22, 2009
Don't get your panties in a twist ... this blog regularly takes jabs at pro-tour teams as well, so a one-liner at the expense of your team isn't worth a riot. I for one googled your team and found your site, so you just got yourself some extra sponsor exposure. As an aside, Symmetrics rode POS Norco road bikes for years and I surely doubt they "chose to", but it was the tool required. In the end, as BQ says, the bike is just a tool.
- Jonnie, Canada
June 22, 2009
Bob Roll said he wrote on his helmet "let them hate so long as they fear". Seems applicable here.
- Jorge, San Jose
June 22, 2009
Forget bikes and bike lust, when are you going to address the disaster that is the new cyclingnews.com??
- Eric, White Rock, BC
June 22, 2009
To address Adam’s question below . . . I am personally rather enraged, because I own and operate that very "doughy" pro/am team in question. And YES, it is the same team (A&F Pro Development, Inferno Pro and Kenda Pro, respectively) riding the Masi brand as in the past 4 years mentioned. We are the ONLY men's team they sponsor. So, to all commenting, thank you for taking interest in my response, but please understand why the original writing is simply, well . . . crap. Those "doughy" men in camo won Athens Twilight (NRC), every jersey at ToO (for 3 straight years), a UCI world championship on the track (while wearing a more "slimming" pin-stripe kit) and tons of NRC podiums with foreign and domestic riders alike. Furthermore, we ride Masi because we CHOOSE to. We do this because their brand manager, Tim Jackson, lives for it and is trying to have the name return to glory. Yet another reason the ordinal post rubs me the wrong way. We have several bike companies chasing our grass roots program. Many of these companies are the likes of the brands you mention below. I hate to tell you, but even Colnago and other famous brands have their MC carbon frames made in Taiwan . . . . in the very same plant as Masi. Our "doughy" guys all love the bikes, and this shoddy pro/am team. So, again, shame on the author of the original post. There are many ways to get the point of passion across . . . . slander and insults under the title of a major Internet-Retailer is a travesty. It simply sucks. Thank you Comp Cyclist, for slamming me, my team and the bikes we ride.
- Chad, Macedonia
June 22, 2009
It is perfectly fine and noble to extoll the virtues of one bike, even at the expense of another. However, that doesn't require being negative and petty about an unrealted team, calling them "third-tier" and "doughy". They may not be a Pro Tour team, but does that make what they are doing worthless, or deserving of being shat upon on the inernet?
This could have been a great sideways review of a Cervelo, a bike that is often denounced as being "souless" for having been made in a Taiwanese fab, by comparing it to a Masi, handmade in Italy, and yet no more or less automatically fun to ride. Intsead it gets sidetracked and devalued by a cheap and negative shot that seems motivated by nothing but pettiness and a false sense of what "Pro" really is.
- Blair, Washington, DC
June 22, 2009
Brent, Blair, The post is not about the current team racing Masi's - though it does demonstrate certain fall from grace. Nor is it really about the quality of the current crop of Masi -they're fine, if not quite drool-over-sexy. Rather it's a post about one's feelings towards bikes. Is it a tool or is it art the inspires all sorts of emotions. Everyone understands the dichotomy in some form. I have a Cannondale for racing (light, stiff and relatively inexpensive) and a Merckx MX Leader (none of those prior adjectives) that has a special place in my heart. This post makes me want a R3 more than any Velonews review could ever do, and that makes it writing worth reading.
- Adam, Hamilton
June 22, 2009
Your are so full of shit!!!! Ocean Beach is just like any other beach in the U.S. and is cleaned regularly. We have a lot of tourists that visit our beautiful city and leave their trash behind. Locals like myself pick up after assholes like that. Do not paint the picture that San Francisco is some dirty city that Dirty Harry is still patrolling. Riding in SF, as well our surrounding areas is wonderful. You lived in a not so nice part of town. I am sure you have a section of town like this in Arkansas. I remember you said you worked at the Pacific Bike on Sutter. Again not the best part of SF. Too bad you did not work at City Cycle in Pacific Heights or maybe a real hard core shop like the Bike Nook in Parkside or Roaring Mouse in the inner Sunset. As you can see I love my city. I hate to read negative things written about it. I hope your next visit is better. Maybe we will have a mayor like Willie Brown again and have a sparkling City once again.
- Tom , San Francisco
June 22, 2009
I'm confused by this post because the caveat you tried to make about the "new" masi being crap wasn't proven. Instead you wrote a narrative about the "old" masi being...well...crap, or at least being of substandard quality. @scott-I think the "Breaking Away" bike was a "gran criterium" model.
- Brent, Madison, WI
June 22, 2009
While it may be a shame that Masi is not the company that it once was, it is definitely a shame that you would see fit to mock a team that is successfully racing on those same bicycles. I really can't see any possible reason to be so negative about it.
- Blair, Washington, DC
June 22, 2009
Chad, why would you take all the fun away from what is in essence a ode to one's bike? Cycling "journalism" is full of cliche's and stregnth to weight ratio comparisons; it's refreshing to read something that makes you think and feel. Plus, he has a point here: Masi used to be awesome and have now fallen off the radar as a frame builder. No Pro-Am team is ever going to have the cache of a Spring Classics battling Euro team. On a related note I find myself wonderin if Colnago is letting itself go down the same path - how can you justify $5,000+ frames with no pros riding your wares?
- Adam, Hamilton
June 22, 2009
I think you are an idiot for slamming a "doughy" pro/am team in camo (who actually do not wear camo any longer and won Athens Twilight while being in that doughy camo phase). I also think it a very negative testament to your company for berating a team and a brand that are trying to survive in this industry . . . an industry Comp Cyclist is supposed to support! I for one will NEVER shop at CC again, and will be sure anyone one or organization that I involve my program will pass along the very same word regarding your company. Shame on you for printing this extremely slanderous mess you call a blog. You are a exactly what is wrong with the cycling industry!
- Chad, Macedonia, OH
June 22, 2009
blame it on those damn bison
- mrg, SF
June 22, 2009
Masi - I believe that was the personal bike, and not the "Little 500" bike, in "Breaking Away" 1979 -and I had to ask somebody what a Masi was at the time, but I suspect those were the waning days of Masi Pride...
- Scott, Rottenchester, NY
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