MasiGuy was excited about the appearance of a Masi Soulville on Monk this last week.

In “Mr. Monk On Wheels,” art imitates real life when San Francisco police not only ignore the theft of a bicycle, the police officers mock Natalie Teager for reporting the theft by saying they’ll have their “bike squad” right on the case by fanning out to look for the missing bike. Natalie feels bad because she unknowingly helped the thief, so she talks Mr. Monk into solving the crime.

Watch free streaming video of this episode, or pay to download for later viewing.

Available in November, MSRP $1145. This bike from Masi is to drool for.

Read more about this and other new models from Masi over at Commute By Bike.

Tim “Masiguy” Jackson of Masi also recently posted some photos of a prototype Masi Mini Velo bicycle for the Japanese market. I’m a big fan of these and I’d love it if somebody could successfully distribute these for the USA bike market.

I’ll post plenty more bike porn photos next month from Interbike 2008, which I’m attending on behalf of Commute By Bike.

The Masi Speciale Commuter is a new bike for 2008 and is intended for the commuter market.

The new Speciale Commuter is a sweet metallic root beer color. It has long dropouts (forward facing!) with a dérailleur hanger, but stock this bike comes equipped with a freewheeling singlespeed cog on a 130 mm flip flop hub. The randonneur bars have natural cork tape on them. This is a commuter bike, so of course it has rack and fender mounts. CroMo fork and frame, of course. Kenda flat resistant Kwick Trax commuter tires have reflective sidewalls.

This bike is amazingly gorgeous.

Tim “Masi Guy” Jackson has unveiled one of the new bikes in the 2008 lineup. The Masi Speciale SoulVille.

This bike is simply gorgeous!

This cruiser bike represents a shift to diversifying from Masi’s road and track racing heritage. “Let’s face it, road—more specifically race bikes—had to slow down eventually,” Jackson said. “The market is expanding into more categories all the time, but the commuter/hybrid/utility bike category is one that particularly appeals to me.” Specs:

• Internal 8spd rear hub with Revo shifter.
• Coaster brake.
• Simple arc bar with natural cork grips.
• Ritchey adjustable stem.
• Rack and fenders mount.
• Custom Masi embossed leather saddle with springs.
• Double butted chromoly steel with steel fork with lugged crown.
• Alloy fenders with the Masi headbadge artwork laser etched on them(!)
• Available in 14″, 16″, 18″ and a 20″.

This bike will retail for about $800 and will be available in black or cream.