Scott,
Thanks for the kind words. The Confente lugs were important because, like the best of investment cast lugs today they are beautiful without requiring many hours of skilled hand labor. They are consistent and free of voids. They have closer tolerances that allow better capillary action of the brazing material, especially silver. Mario also designed dropouts that eliminated the large slug of brass required to fill the end of the tubes with conventional types. To some degree, as seems always the case with bicycles much of this has been done before, just not was well.
As feared, the lugs that became Medicis were not well executed by the casting house, as their mold only approximated Marios designs.
Marios investment cast lugs would look like the Bocamas that he reworked on all his Confente frames. If you compare a Confente and Medici, youll see the differences that disappointed him. Functionally, I dont know how well the Medici lugs work, as we never used them.
I have Marios original drawings of his lugs. I made T shirts year ago, with the Confente logo on front and the lug drawings on the back. I still have a few, let me know the size and Ill check stock. If there is some demand I can do another run.
Mario created molds for his lugs and was trying to raise the money to cast them when he died. I never saw the molds and they were lost. I suspect that they would have been a further evolution of his ideas.
JFC ~ CyclArtist Jim Cunningham Vista, CA -----Original Message----- From: Roadgiant@cs.com [mailto:Roadgiant@cs.com] Sent: Monday, February 26, 2001 2:21 AM To: cyclartist@home.com Subject: Re: [CR]The rest of the Medici story
Jim, Wow. I'm stunned by this tale. Brutally honest and heart felt. Thank you for sharing this story with all of us. I'm curious to know why the Confente lug designs were unique. Are there any photos of them? Was he able to recreate the lugs stolen by Recht? Thanks.
Scott Smith
LA