If you tell enough people that you are going to build a fake Masi, you pretty much have to do it.

Yes- the bike I could never afford....or at least I did not ever own one. I was friends with Bruce Gordon back when he was still in this life and we always were coming up with stuff to rattle the cages of bicycle collector zealots, even though we were maybe guilty of some of the same sins. I told Bruce that I intended to build a fake Masi frame. It took me a number of years to finally get it done-too late for Bruce and a few others who would have gotten the punchline of this joke but I really had to get it done, even if the people who had egged me on were no longer alive to see the final product. 

The thing that came to my mind that would be the ultimate ironic twist would be if the fully built bike got stolen and the thieves tried to pass off the bike as a real Masi. If I were born 15 years earlier, there's a possibility that I would have been one of the small army of US frame builders working at the Masi Carlsbad shop. Back in the late '70's , there were builders looking for paying work and Masi was one of the few places hiring. A number of notable and obscure US builders did time building Grand Criterium frames that looked very much like this one.

I left a few clues for the most avid collectors to be able to identify this frame as gloriously un-authentic. For one, it has English threads, not Italian like every other Masi from the Carlsbad era. There are other little clues but I'll let you figure out those ones for yourself. There are parts of the frame that are nearly identical to the real deal- being able to capture the look made me really happy. Now I have to see how it rides........honestly , I was not a big fan of the Masi ride. If I don't like this one, I'll know that I really hit the mark.