Hello All,
How can I forget the first time that I had seen a Confente cycle?
I stopped by Winning Wheels in Pacific Grove, Ca. That shop always had something enticing laying about. On this occasion there was a white and red cycle on the customer side of the counter. Hector Chavez was building a wheel as we were talking about Spence Wolfe and Cinellis. During the conversation I was working on freeing up a Cinelli bivalent hub which had been packed with Campagnolo grease that had solidified over the past decade or so. As the conversation continued, I kept on glancing at the bike, Confente? Kinda sounds familiar. Then I remembered reading an obit in CYCLING afew years prior. I stopped twisting the axle on the Cinelli hub, it had become free with the heat of my hands and persistence. I got closer to the bike, the details... the incredible workmanship, it was a revelation.... I had never seen a bike as evocative as this. I inquired..... Confente? Didn't he work for Masi?? I asked. Hector put his hand on the wheel he was truing and stopped it. He sat in his chair for a moment, looking at something far off. He got out of his chair and walked up to me and into my personal space and said "HE WAS MASI!"
Regards, David Martinez Fremont Ca US of A working on a 1969 alfa berlina today
Chuck Schmidt <chuckschmidt@earthlink.net> wrote: Life changing moment seldom caught on film...
Here's the exact moment that pretty much changed my life at 31 years of age.
Summer 1976, Griffith Park road race, Los Angeles California... my wife Sherry is taking a picture of our six year old daughter Christa as the three of us spectate the race. I've been riding half a year, lost around 25 pounds, wearing a cotton Cool Gear jersey and matching hat (no helmet, nobody owned a helmet), nylon Kucharik Helanca shorts, nylon Adidas Super Eddy Merckx shoes and riding a mink blue '74 Raleigh Pro Mk. something or other with full Campy that I'm pretty proud of.
I'm glancing over at a white and yellow bike with a name I've never heard of and the thing takes my breath away! The closer I look, the more amazing details there are to see! I literally can't take my eyes off the thing! The decal says "Confente" and the guy bending over to clean the gravel out of his cleats is a guy I've never even heard of before, Mario Confente.
Chuck Schmidt
South Pasadena, CA USA