"I know Masis and a few other "holy grail" type bikes suck in my size."
Brian - I ride the same size frame as yourself and am, therefore, very interested in your statement. Would you say that these bikes typically use a seat angle that is too steep (74-75 deg) or that their tubes are too stiff?
Bruce Kwasha Atlanta, Georgia USA
By the way, I currently own two of your restored bikes. Thank you - your work is magnificent!
-----Original Message----- From: classicrendezvous-bounces@bikelist.org [mailto:classicrendezvous-bounces@bikelist.org] On Behalf Of brianbaylis@juno.com Sent: Saturday, August 01, 2009 10:18 PM To: chasds@mindspring.com Cc: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org Subject: Re: [CR] confente on ebay
Charles,
The ride of the bikes must be primarily in your mind and pocketbook. There is nothing whatsoever different, out of the ordinary, or special about how the Confentes were built, or what material was used. No special geometry or anything else. Therefore, the statement is pure speculation and just your opinion. Science tells us that this is true. Furthermore, there are many thousands of bikes you've never even seen, much less ridden. As far as I know you've never had a bike built to order, either. I think your statement that the Confente may be the best riding bike of the era is off base my a certain amount. Could be a little, could be a lot.
Brian Baylis La Mesa, CA USA Not that what your mind wants you to believe isn't real; but it's only actually real to you. Someone bring me a 50 to 52cm Confente to ride and let me see what I think. I've owned and ridden well over 100 bikes in my day. I know what works for me. Let's see if the Confente fits in the category. I know Masis and a few other "holy grail" type bikes suck in my size. I'd like to think Mario could do better than that.
>From where I'm sitting, that Confente was worth something under 7K, and if the buyer paid more, they were paying for something I'm not completely clear about, unless confentes have suddenly jumped 50% in value in the last three years or so. Complete Confentes settled at 5-7K a long time ago, and I can't see where the value has gone up beyond that...now, if the panto'd parts were custom jobs, maybe that adds a little value, I wouldn't really know about that.
And if a bike has special provenance, maybe that adds value too. Such things usually do. This one had no special provenance, far as I'm aware.
All that said, I admit it is hard to establish a market price for one since there are so few to begin with, and almost none are for sale, and each one is a little different from another. So, prices probably gyrate a bit.
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, accellerates 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.
Given the prices of custom steel race-bikes today, a Confente is not a bad value *as a rider!* Get one that fits you, and you want to ride it. What's sad is that nearly all of them are likely wall-queens. Something Confente surely never intended.
Charles Andrews Los Angeles
"everyone has elites; the important thing is to change them from time to time."
--Joseph Schumpeter, via Simon Johnson _______________________________________________
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