Re: [CR]Confente Labeled as Eddy Merckx Bikes

(Example: Component Manufacturers:Cinelli)

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Date: Tue, 20 Jan 2004 10:29:29 -0800
To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
From: "Jan Heine" <heine93@earthlink.net>
Subject: Re: [CR]Confente Labeled as Eddy Merckx Bikes


There seems to be a contradiction in the statement made in the Bicycle Trader article - if Eddy rode Confentes, and if they all were labeled as such, we'd have seen photos of them in races. So either Eddy rode re-labeled Confentes, or he didn't ride Confentes, or photos still have to come to light that I am not aware of.

The frustrating thing with many published accounts is that the format where they were published did not allow for rigorous source references. That is why Vintage Bicycle Quarterly requires articles to be annotated with the sources for any statement made. For example, who is this Lisa, when did she say this, etc. If we had a last name, we could find her and ask. If we knew that she said this in 1996, several decades after the conversation, it would be different from her saying it in 1976.

This is not to criticize Bradley Woehl, owner of American Cyclery in San Francisco, who did a tremendous job turning the Bicycle Trader from little more than a rag of bike adverts to a quality publication, paving the way for others like VBQ.

Other questions that arise from that account are possible misunderstandings, because we have a Belgian communicating with an Italian, overheard by "Lisa", who may be American.

It is sad that obviously a lot of good research went into that article, and yet it remains little more than hearsay for future generations. Of course, I know from experience that adding sources to an article means a lot of fact-checking, and often takes longer than writing the article itself. A recent article in VBQ on early Campy derailleurs come to mind...

Similar are Brian's claims of "credible sources" for his unraveling the Confente story - I understand that this is a contentious issue, but it would be helpful to know who said it, when they said it, and what their positions were in this. Right now it is one person's word against anothers, and how are we supposed to figure it out? I like Brian, and I am willing to believe him, but that is like voting for a president because he (or she) has a telegenic face. -- Jan Heine, Seattle Editor/Publisher Vintage Bicycle Quarterly http://www.mindspring.com/~heine/bikesite/bikesite/

Brett Horton recently supplied a list, provided by Eddy Merckx, of the bikes he (Merckx) rode; list below. The list does not mention Confente bikes.

In the Confente history pages (thanks Chuck Schmidt for the links) at http://www.bicycletrader.com/confente.html (mapped) and http://www.bicycletrader.com/confente2.html (mapped) it quotes Confente's wife as saying, "She also recalls meeting Eddy Merckx when they traveled to Italy together. "We went in when Eddy was getting a massage. He was getting ready to ride the Milan-San Remo race. Eddy said, "hey Mario, I love your bikes and I want another bicycle." Mario said that he made many bikes for him but he would always put his own decals on the frame."

So, maybe when someone meets with Eddy they can ask him about this.

Brett's list from meeting with Merckx: 1965 - Superia (stock bike) 1966 - Peugeot (stock bike) 1967 - Peugeot (stock bike) and Masi 1968 - Masi 1969 - Marcel Van der Este (Belgian builder) 1970 - Pella (or Pello) Torino, Italy 1971 - Colnago and Kessels 1972 - Colnago and Kessels 1973 - Colnago and Kessels 1974 - DeRosa and Kessels 1975 - DeRosa and Kessels 1976 - DeRosa and Kessels 1977 - DeRosa

Angel Garcia
Long Valley, NJ