Chuck is right that we need to be on guard - we should be generally skeptical I suppose but lets not go overboard!
Its no mystery to those who've known me over the years that one of the few bikes that has stayed in my collection is the second to last Confente built. Made for a well known CA racer (on the US olympic team), he took delivery right before Mario died and was too heartsick to ever build and ride it. Stayed in his garage for years (and a well known Masi expert CR lister was familiar with the frame). Frame is clearly unbuilt except for a headset - and I bought it before Confente mania really heated up.
The purpose of my post was to see if it really is the only unbuilt/unridden one out there - instead I'm having the integrity of the frame questioned. Part of me says to build it up - but if its the only unbuilt frame I'm thinking I'll leave it unassembled. (Lets not start a whole thread of "isn't that sad" - I know all the arguments each way and have been conflicted on it myself for years).
Again, I know that purdence is important. A well known Colorado Confente afficionado collector (no names, but his son won an olympic gold medal) tried TWICE to sell me a supposed unridden Confente. Both were crashed and repainted and the seller seemed surprised when I alerted him to the evidence!
But sometimes the real deal is the real deal, and I want to hold out some hope for humanity.
Mike Kone in Boulder CO
>
\r?\n> Mike Kone wrote:
\r?\n>
\r?\n> > Hi Chuck,
\r?\n> > Ah - one doesn't need to know them all - my question just asks are
\r?\n> > there any - so just one true unridden one (or especially a never
\r?\n> > assembled one) would be all that is needed.
\r?\n>
\r?\n>
\r?\n> Since the bikes were painted with Imron and the decals buried (like
\r?\n> has been done for years now), and the decals are out there and can be
\r?\n> found, I'm not sure I would believe the "never assembled" one was as
\r?\n> represented and not just a very authentic looking repaint. As an
\r?\n> example of how durable Imron is, my Confente's paint looks like shiny
\r?\n> new, other than a few chips from many miles of use, and that paint is
\r?\n> going on 28 years old. The difference between the old, unridden
\r?\n> Confente and the repainted years ago but not reassembled Confente is
\r?\n> going to be very hard to document... maybe impossible is the better
\r?\n> word here.
\r?\n>
\r?\n> Too many experiences with less than scrupulous vintage bike sellers
\r?\n> makes me a very skeptical buyer nowadays, especially when there is
\r?\n> extreme rarity and value in the item being offered for sale. I could
\r?\n> give you the name of a collector that could produce "one true
\r?\n> unridden one" for you; I think you knew him too .
\r?\n>
\r?\n> Chuck Schmidt
\r?\n> South Pasadena, Southern California
\r?\n>
\r?\n> .