I will echo Brian's endorsement of Ralph.. I met him at the North Carolina Cirque a few years back and againat the northern Virginia Cirque last year. He is an interesting guy who once had a successful high end bike shop in Southern California and now has retired to the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia. He is a very engaging person to talk to nad says he has tons of old goodies he saved from his bike shop days...
Dale Brown Greensboro, North Carolina USA
-----Original Message----- From: brianbaylis@juno.com <brianbaylis@juno.com> To: chasds@mindspring.com Cc: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org Sent: Wed, 26 Nov 2008 11:12 am Subject: Re: [CR]ebay outing: confente
Charles and list,
That is indeed a nice Confente. I just spoke to the seller, Ralph Carnev ale who lives near the new location of the Cirque in Virginia. I spent s ome time with Ralph when I was at this past event and went to his house. He has lots of NOS bike stuff and sells a good amount of cool stuff on eBay. This Confente is really clean and will make someone really happy i n the near future. We're trying to get the serial number of the bike but the paint is a bit thick on the BB shell; but I'm pretty sure it's one of the LA bikes. That would make it a Jim Cunningham paint job; even com es with a matching? pump.
I've known Ralph since 1971 or so and you can buy from him with confiden ce. Keep an eye out for his auctions; he will be selling goodies that yo u all want for a long time.
Ralph will be attending next years Cirque and also is planning on attend ing the San Diego Custom Bicycle Show in April 2009. So if anyone wants to meet Ralph (a really good person to know if you're into vintage bike gear), he should be in attendance at our show in April 2009. Check out w ww.SanDiegoCustomBicycleShow.com.
Brian Baylis
La Mesa, CA
Oh. Boy.
I can say with certainty, beyond the huge collectible premium on
these....they ride really, really good. For the tall guys among us,
this would be a keeper..looks to be in mint condition too!
Charles Andrews SoCal
"Somebody has to be tireless... or the fast buck operators would
asphalt the entire coast, fill every
bay and slay every living thing
incapable of carrying a wallet."
--John D. MacDonald