RE: [CR]Mario Confente Superlight

(Example: Framebuilding:Norris Lockley)

From: "Chris Andersen" <shop@cyclart.com>
To: "The Maaslands" <TheMaaslands@comcast.net>, <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
Subject: RE: [CR]Mario Confente Superlight
Date: Wed, 8 Mar 2006 21:38:44 -0800
In-Reply-To: <058e01c6426f$6d602b60$6501a8c0@HPLAPTOP>
cc: Susan Cunningham <susan@cyclart.com>

Steven and the list,

This MASI frame was built by Mario at Masi while I worked there with him. The client was Sam Bloomfield of San Diego, an elderly gent who wanted the lightest possible bike. It was understood that he would ride it little, if at all. I think it was delivered in clearcoat with gold pearl. We did several show bikes in clear to show the tidy brazing and in this case, I painted it with pearlised gold clear that was used as a topcoat on the yellow bikes to make it a little more special. I have a photo of Sam and his wife taking delivery of the frame I'll look for it in my Confente files and post it soon.

I believe the frame was delivered as a frame only. I don't recall the bike being built up and the photo with the customer is frameset only. The frame may well have been the one shown in NY.

The vast majority of Masis built in Carlsbad were production frames built to standardized sizing and specification. There were small variations over time and to a lesser degree due to different interpretations of shaping the lugs prior to brazing. Some interpretations were unique and distinctive enough to indicate specific craftsmen. Based on these subtleties, I can give an opinion was to whether a given Masi was filed by Mario himself or not.

At the time I worked there, some clients would see Mario personally to be measured and he would build their frames himself. While normal Masis had a single vent hole in the seat tube, to the top tube, these "specials" had more than one. Frames with more elaborate work like the fluted steered, and slotted dropouts etc. had more holes. Four was the most I saw, and I suspect this frame was the most extreme produced at Masi at that time. I don't know what extra charges were incurred for custom frame at the time, but that would have been handled through the front office. Perhaps some clients gave Mario a tip.

It was well known that the clearcoat-only finish was a short term coating that would soon admit rust, so it is no surprise that this frame was repainted. The Confente spade with MC at the center art work was not created by Fred Ferrari until nearly a year after this frame was delivered and no Masis, regardless of whether Mario built them or not were ever painted with Confente decals during Mario's lifetime. I suspect he would have disapproved. I have repainted Mario produced Masis substituting Mario's signature for Falierio's but other wise using normal Masi decals. At least two of those were done in Mario's shop with his approval while I was painting Confentes in LA.

The paintwork on this frame is unfortunate. Even if the Confente decals were appropriate, we never positioned them as seen here on any Confente. The placement of the Pro Strada on the fork blade is so out of the norm for the period in any brand that it suggests the refinish is less than 20 years old. We can see that the decals are missing bits and are not clearcoated so the painter was apparently not familiar with their correct usage.

The machined parts must post date the frame production by at least a year as the artwork had not been created while Mario was at Masi. I took many parts to our machinist for engraving for Mario, but these are a different pattern from any we did. The seat post may be original as I did a number of Super Record posts in world colors like that while at Masi. Note that the detail painted on the post is much cleaner than the rest. Fluted posts painted at Confente were yellow, black only or yellow/black/orange.

The color on the frame is really odd and was not on either the Masi or Confente palette.

It nice to know that this frame still exists, I don't think there were any other 4 hole bikes. It is arguably the finest of the Carlsbad Masis. It does need a proper finish though... Perhaps by the hands that painted it the first time???

Jim Cunningham

CyclArt 2590 Pioneer Ave Suite A Vista, CA 92081 USA shop@cyclart.com http://www.cyclart.com http://ebay.com/<blah> tel: 760-599-1016

-----Original Message----- From: classicrendezvous-bounces@bikelist.org [mailto:classicrendezvous-bounces@bikelist.org]On Behalf Of The Maaslands Sent: Tuesday, March 07, 2006 9:16 PM To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org Subject: [CR]Mario Confente Superlight Bike

In response to the many replies to my earlier post regarding the Confente labeled bike that my friend purchased, I must point out that my friend has put in some work cleaning up some of the sloppy infilling and will continue to do so until he feels it is OK. He has already sent me some photos that show the improvements made. I'll try and replace the photos with the 'new improved' ones shortly. There are however some true 'errors', like where there was a bobble witht he pantograph point on the left crank near the spade, or in the millings of the brake calipers.

BTW, E-Richie has also sent me a note to say that he thinks that the tubing is actually the 0.5 mm thickness 'Record' tubing. For those that have not gone through all of the photos, as well as those who pointed out the drilling of the handlebars as being dangerous, you may want to take a look at the fork steer tube. It is milled very deeply! Personally, I am not overly concerned about the bars, to me what is much more worrisome are the cranks, the steerer and the 24 hole radially spoked rear wheel.

Steven Maasland Moorestown, NJ

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