Dear Richard and CR list,
Here are my thoughts on why Mario's bikes are sought with such fervor: Perhaps other Confente owners their thoughts.
Mario was the real deal; born an raised in the heart of the Italian cycling world and in the tradition of artisans. He had a successful amateur racing career in Italy and worked for key builders including Pogliaghi, Bianchi and Sieber before establishing his own shop and subcontracting to Masi. He claimed to have originated several key features of the classic Gran Criterium, including the distinctive fluted stay caps. Schooled as a jeweler, but too poor to buy gold to work it, Mario was one of the pioneers in making investment casting practical for bicycle frames, thereby to a great extent reducing the need for the very skills he had; working the old type lugs. Those skills and Mario's work habits were awesome. I was privileged to work with him. The speed, accuracy focus ands intensity of his work, usually while singing opera in Italian, were stunning.
Mario was dedicated to excellence. He insisted on nothing less than the best, especially from himself. Not to be confused with bravado common to many Italians, (if took me a while to get past that in Mario) he really believed he was building the finest bicycles anywhere, and the market seemed to agree.
Unfortunately, he was supporting family back home and so came to rely on an investor for start-up capital for his "Custom Bicycles by Confente". The investor made it appear that Mario was his employee and so tried to steal Mario's lug and tooling designs while establishing a company without Mario's knowledge to mass produce similar product. Mario was eventually offered the position of Master Builder and would have been able to continue his custom work at the top of the resulting company, but Mario felt that he had been mislead and chose to leave and restart his company rather than participate. This took great conviction an courage. He had just reestablished his independence and married his long time girlfriend when he left us.
Mario could be the pinnacle classic frame building, not just due to the quality of the product, but also due to the importance of his contribution to the field. The fact that those contributions resulted only in great trauma for him and that he left us early of course add to the fascination with him. What else might this talented young man have done?
Of course, there were only 132 Confentes made, and obviously few of any given size. Because of the closeness many of his customers felt to Mario, the bikes are rarely parted from the original owners. I have a long list of those who have asked to purchase one. As agent for the original owner, I am obligated to get him market value, so an auction sees the only way to go. I'm sorry more people can't afford these bikes and moreover I'm very sorry that they are not still being made!
JFC
-----Original Message----- From: classicrendezvous-admin@bikelist.org [mailto:classicrendezvous-admin@bikelist.org] On Behalf Of Rich Rose Sent: Thursday, June 27, 2002 7:39 AM To: youngc@NetReach.Net; classicrendezvous@bikelist.org Subject: RE: [CR]eBay Confente
I get that it is rare. I get that it is cool. But I don't get "it". A
friend just picked up a late '70's Wiegle (Weigle?) on e-bay that is
just about perfect, with full NR group for just a small fraction of what
this one is already up to. Arguably as rare as the Confente? It even
came complete with built up grime - trust me it looks better cleaned up!
Anyone on this list could have an equal or better ride just by ordering
a frame from one of the several excellent, without peer framebuilders on
this list. (Peter, Richard, Brian, Curt, David, Phil etc...). Heck, if
you have to have "vintage" you could go with Richard's 30'Th anniversary
model with a lower number than "35". Perhaps other of our esteemed group
of builders would do something similar? Then you could build up your own
grime. I am not a "collector" in the same vein as others on this list,
and I do not want to be unkind but what exactly did this guy (Mario) do
besides die? BTW, here is the e-bay link for those who want to see what
all the fuss is about. Richard Rose (Toledo, Ohio), now donning my
flameproof skivvies.
http://ebay.com/