Re: [CR]Number 2?

(Example: Framebuilders:Chris Pauley)

Date: Tue, 13 Mar 2001 19:33:11 -0700
To: Jerry & Liz Moos <moos@penn.com>, "Steven L. Sheffield" <stevens@veloworks.com>
From: "Bicycle Classics inc" <bikevint@tiac.net>
Subject: Re: [CR]Number 2?
Cc: Classic Rendezvous <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>


I am walking on thin ice here by getting into this, but here I go. An Eisentraut frame is a wonderful frame - but it just isn't the same as a Confente. On rare occassions there are things created by man/woman that somehow convey a unique sense of perfection and beauty. An Eisentraut frame is a superbe frame - but one does not get the same overwhelming sense of beauty and perfection from being near it as one gets from a Confente. Coupled with the awesome ride characteristics of a Confente, it is not at all suprising that it is held in such high regard by so many. This does not imply that other builders cannot build a frame of equal - or perhaps even superior quality - there are builders on this list that can. But Confente frames have a look and "feel" to them that is really quite powerfull - in my mind a Confente frame was certainly the defining racing frame of a past period - and now we are lucky to have builders among us that push the art of framebuilding forward in the present. Mike "just love the sweet Confente lugs" Kone

At 09:02 PM 3/13/01 -0500, Jerry & Liz Moos wrote:
>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