Jim,
By all means, dig up the photo of the bike. I don't think I've ever seen the "clearcoat treatment" on a frame using gold pearl in the process. I 'd be interested to see that and also if it is visible in the photo, ass uming you find it.
Since I wasn't there at the time, I have a question about the painters p resent while you were. I've never been able to figure it out. Wasn't Ron Smith there the entire time you worked there? I know he was there befor e your arrival; wasn't he also there still after you left? And where doe s Pricilla Hoefer come in as the painters' assistant? If you could fill in the situation during that time perhaps I could make sense of these st ray bits of information. Hope you can help me. Thanks.
Brian Baylis
La Mesa, CA
Steven and the list,
This MASI frame was built by Mario at Masi while I worked there with him . The client was Sam Bloomfield of San Diego, an elderly gent who wanted t he lightest possible bike. It was understood that he would ride it little, if at all. I think it was delivered in clearcoat with gold pearl. We did several show bikes in clear to show the tidy brazing and in this case, I
painted it with pearlised gold clear that was used as a topcoat on the yellow bikes to make it a little more special. I have a photo of Sam an d his wife taking delivery of the frame I'll look for it in my Confente f iles and post it soon.
I believe the frame was delivered as a frame only. I don't recall the b ike being built up and the photo with the customer is frameset only. The fra me may well have been the one shown in NY.
The vast majority of Masis built in Carlsbad were production frames buil t to standardized sizing and specification. There were small variations over
time and to a lesser degree due to different interpretations of shaping the lugs prior to brazing. Some interpretations were unique and distinctive
enough to indicate specific craftsmen. Based on these subtleties, I can
give an opinion was to whether a given Masi was filed by Mario himself o r not.
At the time I worked there, some clients would see Mario personally to b e measured and he would build their frames himself. While normal Masis had a single vent hole in the seat tube, to the top tube, these "specials" had
more than one. Frames with more elaborate work like the fluted steered, and slotted dropouts etc. had more holes. Four was the most I saw, and I suspect this frame was the most extreme produced at Masi at that time. I don't know what extra charges were incurred for custom frame at the time , but that would have been handled through the front office. Perhaps some
clients gave Mario a tip.
It was well known that the clearcoat-only finish was a short term coatin g that would soon admit rust, so it is no surprise that this frame was repainted. The Confente spade with MC at the center art work was not created by Fred Ferrari until nearly a year after this frame was deliver ed and no Masis, regardless of whether Mario built them or not were ever painted with Confente decals during Mario's lifetime. I suspect he woul d have disapproved. I have repainted Mario produced Masis substituting Mario's signature for Falierio's but other wise using normal Masi decals . At least two of those were done in Mario's shop with his approval while I was painting Confentes in LA.
The paintwork on this frame is unfortunate. Even if the Confente decals
were appropriate, we never positioned them as seen here on any Confente.
The placement of the Pro Strada on the fork blade is so out of the norm for the period in any brand that it suggests the refinish is less than 20 ye ars old. We can see that the decals are missing bits and are not clearcoate d so the painter was apparently not familiar with their correct usage.
The machined parts must post date the frame production by at least a yea r as the artwork had not been created while Mario was at Masi. I took many pa rts to our machinist for engraving for Mario, but these are a different patt ern from any we did. The seat post may be original as I did a number of Sup er Record posts in world colors like that while at Masi. Note that the det ail painted on the post is much cleaner than the rest. Fluted posts painted at Confente were yellow, black only or yellow/black/orange.
The color on the frame is really odd and was not on either the Masi or Confente palette.
It nice to know that this frame still exists, I don't think there were a ny other 4 hole bikes. It is arguably the finest of the Carlsbad Masis. It
does need a proper finish though... Perhaps by the hands that painted i t the first time???
Jim Cunningham
CyclArt
2590 Pioneer Ave Suite A
Vista, CA 92081 USA
shop@cyclart.com
http://www.cyclart.com
http://ebay.com/
-----Original Message----- From: classicrendezvous-bounces@bikelist.org [mailto:classicrendezvous-bounces@bikelist.org]On Behalf Of The Maaslands Sent: Tuesday, March 07, 2006 9:16 PM To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org Subject: [CR]Mario Confente Superlight Bike
In response to the many replies to my earlier post regarding the
Confente labeled bike that my friend purchased, I must point out that my
friend has put in some work cleaning up some of the sloppy infilling and
will continue to do so until he feels it is OK. He has already sent me
some photos that show the improvements made. I'll try and replace the
photos with the 'new improved' ones shortly. There are however some true
'errors', like where there was a bobble witht he pantograph point on the
left crank near the spade, or in the millings of the brake calipers.
BTW, E-Richie has also sent me a note to say that he thinks that the
tubing is actually the 0.5 mm thickness 'Record' tubing. For those that
have not gone through all of the photos, as well as those who pointed
out the drilling of the handlebars as being dangerous, you may want to
take a look at the fork steer tube. It is milled very deeply!
Personally, I am not overly concerned about the bars, to me what is much
more worrisome are the cranks, the steerer and the 24 hole radially
spoked rear wheel.
Steven Maasland Moorestown, NJ
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