Dear Listmembers,
Apparently there are STILL many people on the list who are interested in knowing more about the Confente story and the related tributaries. There is even interest in having me write the "tell all" story about this major event in American framebuilding. I know many on the list will cringe at just the mention of the names Masi and Confente. I sympathize with these people and wish I could help them by not responding or delveing into this subject any further; but alas it is too important an event to ignore over here in the states, and especially here in California. Jan Heine has asked me now for the second time if I would be willing to write an article for VBQ on the subject which I would be honored to do; the only problem is that I do not have the time or energy to do so right at this moment. I hope that soon I will be in a position to do the job and do justice to his readership and the topic. I will try to accomplish this as soon as I am able to do so. I've never undertaken the writing of such a piece, so it is new territory for me. But if ever there was a worthy topic, the Masi Saga is one of them.
There are a number of personal emails that I need to get back to related to this, so be patient and I'll get back to those who are awaiting a responce. One interesting point that was brought up is the "regionality" of respect for various brands of frames. Confente is particularly odd in this way, primarily on account of the unique marketing approach that surrounded Masi and then Confente. The thing that I find most humorous and interesting is that the Brits and others can't for the life of them see what is so "special" about a Confente or a Masi. The actual answer is "nothing" from many perspectives. Since they are looking with their eyes and not from the emotional view that many Americans see these things from, they only see what is there; and that is as it should be. When I discuss Confente amongst other framebuilders and a few who are highly tuned into what makes a quality and/or collectable bike, the foundation is always the same. Why is everyone so taken with Mario? What the educated and unbiased eye sees as compared to the hype, is clearly out of alignment. As a framebuilder, as a person who worked with both Faliero and Mario, and as a person who seeks to know the facts and has little use for fiction, I will do my best to put forth an accurate and informative explaination of how things really were and why we are where we are now. The only problem is that it won't happen over night. I hope to have it appear in VBQ when I finish it, if I can make that all work out. This way I can spare our fellow enthuesists who are not interested from the gory details. In the meantime, if there are specific questions that I can answer, I would be happy to do so. I hope to have one of my key sources of information here for a visit this weekend, during which time I will gather more information with this project in mind. Thanks for being patient and interested.
Brian Baylis
La Mesa, CA