Well, Mario may have been worshiped in California, but in my part of the US in the 70's (Ohio in the early 70's, Arkansas in the late 70's) I would say Albert Eisentraut was much better known. In fact, I'd say Eisentraut was probably the first US framebuilder since WWII to become well known among US biking enthusiasts generally, as opposed to among fellow framebuilders. That isn't to say he was necessarily better than Mario, but he certainly was/is no slouch.
Regards,
Jerry Moos
Steven L. Sheffield wrote:
> So ... if we are all agreed that Mario Confente was the best builder in the
> United States in the 1970s ...
>
> Who is number 2, and for whom does he work?
>
> Or are we even agreed that Mario is number 1?
>
> If you could have a bike built by each of the top three builders, who would
> they be? In order?
>
> --
>
> Steven L. Sheffield
> stevens at veloworks dot com
> veloworks at earthlink dot net
> aitch tee tea pea colon [for word] slash [four ward] slash double-you
> double-yew double-ewe dot veloworks dot com [four word] slash