In a message dated 5/21/2005 12:49:35 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, Fred writes:
I think this is a tough call. Since _all_ LeJeune race bikes were built by subcontractors, why isn't Boyers bike a "LeJeune (by Confente)" or a "Confente-LeJeune" or something like that?
Fred;
I can't address the decals. As to the bike itself, I don't think it's a tough call or even a mildly difficult call for that matter... it's plain in the pics that the frames are built with Confente's IC lugs.
Bob Hovey Columbus GA
http://www.cyclart.com/
BTW, the above link came out of the CR archive. It was accompanied by the following text which I neglected to quote in my message yesterday:
I can shed some light here. I was working with Mario when Jacques ordered his Confentes. There are four of them, painted to match his LeJune team bikes of the time.
Here is a link to photos of all four bikes I took after painting them at Confente's shop. The top photo is a postcard Jacques gave me at the time to model the paintwork on. He is shown riding his LeJune.
http://www.cyclart.com/
Actually, as you can see, they are not painted entirely to the Lejune pattern. Jaques Lejune team bike these were to replace,had already had stars painted on the headtube, playing on Jacques then-unique nationality.
I added the small stripes on the headtube and seattube. I also suggested different decal colors to identify the intended purpose of the frame geometry. There were two normal road frames with yellow decals, one for climbing stages with blue decals and one for time trial with gold and black.
No other LeJunes were produced by Confente. There were no "extra tubes" on any Confente. There was never 90-120 frames bikes of any kind in Mario's shop,certainly not a run of LeJunes!
I actually ran into Jacques Boyer at the Interbike show yesterday, we chatted for a moment, he mentioned that he still had a bicycle distribution company and that he still had his Confentes.
Rumors are rampant. Glad I can squash a few.
Jim Cunningham
Vista, CA