I suppose I'd want a bike from the three builders who were most respected and desired in SE Michigan, especially by a much younger and skinnier me, back in the mid - late 70's: Matt Assenmacher, Doug Fattic and Mark Nobillette. Not that they were the "best" or "better", but because they were/are highly competent builders who made pretty bikes that the "best" riders I knew rode in my formative years. Assenmachers for the tourists, Nobilettes for the racers and Fattics for the artsy/riche crowd. Marinnoni frames came in later in my formative age, in the early 80's, when Multigear in A2 sold them, which is where I bought mine. Midwest Cyclery had a beautiful Assenmacher in earlier this year, but the owner wasn't interested in selling. Arrgh!
One down, three to go!
Tom Adams, 25 miles on the Raleigh International's maiden voyage after work today in Kansas City !
-----Original Message----- From: Jerry & Liz Moos <moos@penn.com> To: Steven L. Sheffield <stevens@veloworks.com> Cc: Classic Rendezvous <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org> Date: Tuesday, March 13, 2001 8:04 PM Subject: Re: [CR]Number 2?
>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