The year I started riding was 1976 when I was 32. Bought a Raleigh Pro, full Campy, $506 in the box, with my April tax refund. Lost 40 pounds that first year.
Rode to the Griffith Park Road Race early on a beautiful summer morning to watch my friends race and wound up standing behind this guy with a brand of bike that I had never heard of before. As the race unfolded I would periodically look at this guy's bike and would notice different little details... this bike was heartbreakingly beautiful. Actually made my heart ache. Very Italian looking and painted white with a yellow headtube.
I finally worked up enough nerve to ask this guy about his bike. The bike was a "Confente" and the guy turned out to be Mario Confente. We talked about bike aesthetics (white makes the bike look soft like a voluptuous Ferrari) and art, and hit it off immediately. Both 32 and both self-employed as artists, he as a frame builder and I as a graphic designer. Had some great conversations about bikes and life as he built my frame and on a shake down ride together later when the bike was completed.
Dead at age 34 of heart disease... I still miss him intensely.
Chuck "Confente #67" Schmidt
South Pasadena, California