Promise kept

Not sure when I got the idea but I know it must have been a few years ago. This looks like a really clean Masi frame , doesn't it ? Or- maybe a refinished frame ....either way it doesn't have a suspicious look , at least to me. You might wonder why I am putting a frame that someone else built on my blog. Truth is, this is a frame that I built in December of last year. 

The idea I had that I told a few people about was that I wanted to build a fake Masi. I told Bruce Gordon and got a chuckle out of him.....no mean feat. Bruce did see the humor in many things but he also had a lot of sadness from depression- my fake Masi idea was something I knew he would get a laugh out of and maybe it would brighten his day. I also told Ed Litton about the fake Masi project as I was looking for a few old frame building parts to really make the frame and fork as authentic looking as possible. Ed gave me some good leads as to where I might find what I was looking for. 

Unfortunately, both Ed and Bruce died - now my Fake Masi joke is mainly for me but I'm glad that I spent the time to build the frame and fork and to do the best job that I could with what I had and with what time I was able to devote. Really, I had told too many people that I was going to do it so there was no backing out- not only was I committed , I was duty bound to create a really decent fake. In effect, I had made a promise and I wanted to keep that promise. Sure, there's plenty of people who I had told about this project who are still alive but I wanted to keep the promise I made to Bruce and Ed.....not that they really would care- I no longer have any way of knowing that. To me it just felt really important to keep a promise to two people who happen to not be alive any more. Maybe that's my way of making it seem like they are still around, as if we still have a dialog and can still share this joke that I built a fake Masi that likely will be entered in some concours or classic bike show..........what if it wins a ribbon ? What if scores of collectors are carefully looking it over and arguing about what year it was constructed ? What if there's nobody left to be entertained by the irony.......to get the joke. Doesn't matter- I did it anyway-for Bruce, for Ed, for Seth, For Michael, for Roland and all my departed friends who I am sure would laugh if they could.