Re: [CR] Confente ride

(Example: Framebuilders)

Date: Sat, 1 Aug 2009 20:37:56 -0700
From: "Dale B. Phelps" <losgatos_dale@yahoo.com>
To: <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>, EPL <lowiemanuel@yahoo.ca>
In-Reply-To: <624817.83764.qm@web50503.mail.re2.yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: [CR] Confente ride


Some were (are) total clams, but no one sitting on one (or more) will state that publicly, will they?

Dale Phelps
Montagna lunga Colorado USA


--- On Sat, 8/1/09, EPL wrote:


From: EPL <lowiemanuel@yahoo.ca> Subject: [CR] Confente ride To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org Date: Saturday, August 1, 2009, 7:58 PM

Charles Andrews wrote:

"The interesting thing about Confentes in general is that they may well have been the nicest-riding race-bike of that era.  Better than nearly anything else, in various subtle ways.  Ask anyone who's ridden one for awhile, they'll tell you the same.  Kind-of like a more-agile Masi GC, but not as nervous as later Colnagos, Masi Prestiges, and etc.  Nice and stiff, but not too stiff, accelerates really well, with ride-all-day comfort.  The closest bike I can think of to it is a Cinelli Super Corsa of the early 70s, but the Cinelli is not quite as sporty-feeling as the Confente." 

I would love to learn more about the dimensions and geometry of Confente's frames: BB drop, head angle, rake, chainstay length. In fact, I'd like to know more about that stuff for most of the bikes made by the masters we talk about on CR, including the still-alive-and-well designers of Wizard and Baylis and Weigle and Sachs and Cooper and all the rest.  Ironically, to me, those science-based numbers are more intrinsic to the art of the bicycle than the matching of period-correct pantography or the thickness of dried paint. I'm just saying.

Confente owners, protractors and tape measures?

Emanuel Lowi Montreal, Quebec

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