Masi Nuovo Strada – the build begins

An Italian bike – a Masi no less.  They’re none too common in the smaller frame sizes, so when this one showed up, I picked it up straight away.  Getting it home took some finagling.  The seller dropped the bike at Village Cycle Shoppe in Cocoa, FL, and they packed it up for me.  I sent them a bikeflights label to get it up here.

I stripped the frame and cleaned it up, and shipped it to my paint guru, Duane at chestercycles.com.  There are some scratches that need attention, but he will (as usual) do a fantastic job with it.  I picked up the frame from Duane on March 7th, and it is stunning.  The red paint looks about an inch deep and the chrome fork is a great accent.

I have a full Chorus 3×10 drivetrain that I was going to install on the Lemond Zurich, but Rob talked me into Dura Ace on the Lemond.  The Italian Masi practically screams Campagnolo, to me, anyway.  So, the Campy group goes on this Masi.

I’m going to use the Chorus-hubbed Mavic rims with tubulars on this one – that combination seems appropriate too.

I sprayed Framesaver inside the frame tubes, and twisted the frame around to ensure that all tube surfaces have been coated.  Then, it sits for a day or two.

I greased and pressed the headset cups into the headtube, installed the crown race onto the fork, and installed the fork.  The wheels for this bike are already built, I laced Chorus hubs to Mavic GP4 tubular rims with DT Swiss spokes.  I have a rolling chassis (frameset?) now.

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