Jan & all,
I have in my hand, and will post on my website, a scan of the original design card for the sole Confente built for Eddy Merckx. It was number 8. The card was filled out in Mario's handwriting with the red ink he was using at the time. The address on the card is "Kraaihem, Belgio" I was painting Confentes at that time in a shop in National City, CA. The Merckx frame was not painted, it was delivered raw. I have a large box of documents from Mario's business operations. It is possible that there will be a receipt for shipment of the frame, but it will take some time to look if any one cares.
Mario told me that while subcontracting to Masi in Italy, he had built Masis ridden by Merckx and other pros. He claimed that the Confente built for Merckx was a purchase and not a gift. Merckx was reputed to be an equipment freak and it seems possible that he purchased a Confente along with much other hardware. Perhaps he never got around to trying it, perhaps it made no impression. I never heard any claim that Eddy had used this particular frame. I will also look for any correspondence regarding Merckx in the docs box, but there is nothing as obvious as a letter on Merckx letterhead.
Although Mario was a Catholic and always wore a gold crucifix he had made himself, I doubt the Pope story. As was common at the time, other bike builders have given the Pope gifts, usually gold plated specials. There are no Confente design cards for "Il Papa" nor was I ever asked to gold plate anything while with Confente.
I will ask Lisa, Mario's wife, if she wants to speak to Jan on these matters.
Jan, please contact me offline.
Jim Cunningham CyclArtist Vista, CA
-----Original Message----- From: classicrendezvous-bounces@bikelist.org [mailto:classicrendezvous-bounces@bikelist.org] On Behalf Of Jan Heine Sent: Tuesday, January 20, 2004 10:29 AM To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org 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/
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/
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