 |  | | | |  | |  |  | Great Bike Shop: Ira's, Arroyo Grande, California |  | |  |  | |
 Posted: Sat Nov 21, 2009 5:35 am |
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| sandranian |
| Site Admin |
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| Joined: 27 Feb 2006 |
| Posts: 2701 |
| Location: Southern California |
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Just thought I would share this with you....
I was in the old town part of Arroyo Grande, California (central coast near Pismo Beach north of Santa Barbara) and stumbled accross Ira's Bike Shop. Inside was cluttered with bikes and old posters. The first one that caught my eye was a Masi with "CCCP" on the top tube and "Masi" in russian script on the bike. There was another Masi Gran Criterium hanging right next to it. While I am no Masi fan, I can appreciate their looks and the fact that others value them.
In the counter display case there was a Campagnolo 50th anniversary set...NOS and nice and dusty. I like bike shops that show their age...and this is one that does so both in spades and in style. There was more vintage stuff, including a few high-wheelers (penny farthings) and a derosa hung in the corner for good measure. Really a great shop.
The highlight was speaking with Ira himself, who was super nice and would readily put down what he was doing to chat about old bikes with a (ashamedly) non-paying visitor. He was the proud owner of a Gitane tandem, which he said displayed all of the quirks which make us love the bikes. He said that the seat tube had broken at one point (driver), and that when he had it repaired, he was told that despite the claims of the manufacturer, the tubing was not "cromoly", but some other compound. Interesting...
Definitely worth your time. The town is great too...small cafe's with riders drinking coffee and the like. Anyhow, just thought I would let y'all know if you are in the neighborhood, to definitely stop by. It is right off of the 101 freeway....
Ira's Bike Shop
107 Bridge St
Arroyo Grande, CA 93420-3309
(805) 489-2621
http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WM2ZCH_Iras_Bike_Shop_Arroyo_Grande_California |
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| Posted: Thu Dec 03, 2009 8:21 pm |
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| overfedlonghairedgnome |
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| Joined: 18 Aug 2007 |
| Posts: 64 |
| Location: Antelope Valley, CA |
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Stephan
Wow, small world. I graduated from Cal Poly, SLO, in 1983 and knew Ira's well. I always stopped by his shop on my rides through town. He built wheels for me, among many other things. Last year I traveled all the way from the Antelope Valley, where I live now, back to Ira's to have him help me pull the Stronglight crankset off my TdF. The same old Ira in the same shop, 25 years later. And you are so right, Ira is a great guy and always ready to help a racer or a duffer. I'm glad you had a chance to meet him.
Jim |
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Jim
The overfed long haired leaping gnome |
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| | | | | | | | | OT Ruski Masi | | | | | |
| Posted: Thu Dec 03, 2009 9:20 pm |
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| verktyg |
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| Joined: 14 Jan 2007 |
| Posts: 2814 |
| Location: SF Bay Area |
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| sandranian wrote: |
| The first one that caught my eye was a Masi with "CCCP" on the top tube and "Masi" in russian script on the bike. |
In 1978 our shop somehow came by a brand new red Masi Russian Team frame with all Cyrillic characters including CCCP in big yellow letters on the top tube (CCCP = Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik -SSSR in Russian).
This frame was made with the as yet unavailable Masi 3V Volumetrica oversize tubing and internal lugs.
http://classicrendezvous.com/Italy/Masi/Masi_3-V_lugs.htm
http://classicrendezvous.com/Italy/Masi/Masi_3-V-843_1.htm
Blurb from the Classic Rendezvous web site"
"Perhaps Masi's most important contribution to bicycle design was his early use of oversize tubes in his early '80's Volumetrica design. The steel bikes, which were light for the time had innovative internal lugs. Masi Volumetrica's were used successfully in many international races by the Leningrad Lokomotiv / USSR team of Alexender Kuznetsov."
I'd mentioned this early 1978 frame to a number of people who politely suggested that I didn't know what I was talking about... 
Masi didn't introduce these Volumetrica tubed frames to the Western public until the early 80s.
Several weeks ago, at a bike swap in SF, I ran across someone who worked for Masi here in the US and asked him about the frame. He said yes, it was a real Italian Masi frame first built for the Russians in the late 70s. He said that Masi Italy sponsored a team in Russia... So there, my memory is vindicated.
In 1988 Masi USA built 100 of these frames as commemoratives to celebrate the Russian team wins at the 1988 Olympics.
We kept that original 1978 frame around our shop as a conversation piece for a long time since the cold war was still very hot, especially after 1980!
Who would be caught dead on a commie bike here in the US!. 
Where's Joe and his bunky buddy Roy?
This isn't politics, it's history Chas. |
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