Confente for Masi

Description

This post is also available in: Italiano

Mario Confente is considered one of the world’s greatest and most refined frame builders, sadly passing away prematurely at the age of 33. During his career, he built 125 road frames and 11 track frames, which are still considered true masterpieces. Mario Confente began collaborating with Faliero Masi in the early 1970s, and when Faliero moved to the U.S., selling the manufacturing rights for his bikes to Roland Sham, Confente followed him to Carlsbad, becoming the production manager of the new factory. But Mario’s dream was to produce frames under his own name, and the opportunity came to him from entrepreneur Bill Recht, who first attempted to buy Roland Stahm’s factory, but then, unable to proceed, took away his best talent, offering Confente financial support to open a new business and produce bikes under his own name. Thus, “Custom Bicycles by Confente” was born in 1976.

CONFENTE

The bike presented was built, as certified by Alberto Masi in the attached certificate, by Mario Confente at the Masi Workshops at the Vigorelli Velodrome in Milan and restored by Masi himself.
It displays the characteristics of Confente frames, starting with the lighter dropouts. The frame is completely bundled, without cable guides or holes for bottle cages. The fork crown is also lighter than standard Criterium models. The components are as lightweight as possible. The frame is built with Reynolds 753 tubing, French size.
It is equipped with a Campagnolo Super Record groupset. Cinelli stem and handlebar. Ambrosio rims. Cinelli Unicanitor saddle. Clement “Ritmo” tubulars. Alfredo Binda toe straps.

This is the story of the bike, as told by Paolo, the previous owner:

“I found it at the Imola market, if I remember correctly, in 2016, and the frame had the top tube cut and added, fortunately without compromising the lugs. For this reason, the purchase might have seemed rash, and indeed it would have been, had I not relied on my long-standing friendship with Alberto Masi, to whom, after having the frame sandblasted, I took it for an attempted restoration. As soon as Alberto saw it, he said to me: “Paolo, Mario Confente, built this in my workshop, but the big problem is that the Reynolds 753 tubes it’s built with have French measurements, so the lugs also have French-measure holes, and either you find Reynolds 753 tubes, or it can’t be repaired.” I was happy with the response (Mario Confente did), but I understood the difficulty of finding that tube of a different size. A small aside about the stock tubes. 753 tubes, which are extremely light and therefore difficult to weld, are made of variable thickness tubes for bicycle frames, thicker at the ends to withstand welding, and thinner in the center. For example, Columbus SL tubes are 0.9, 0.6, and 0.9, while Reynolds 753 tubes are 0.3 in the center. From that moment on, I searched the world over for 753 tubes, but the only option was to buy them from Reynolds in England, which only supplied six sets at a time, at an absurd cost. The only person who could solve my problem was Alberto Masi, who has had a small warehouse of tubes since the days when frames were made of steel. I literally pestered him for months until one day, towards the end of 2017, he called me and said he had found French tubes and could therefore proceed with the repair, which involved disassembling two tubes without damaging the joints, which are impossible to find with those French sizes. And so, now we can admire this masterpiece. by Mario Confente, who, as you know, was Faliero Masi’s favorite student in the mid-1970s. Masi first picked him up from his workshop in Montorio Veronese and brought him to Milan, then took him with him to California to organize production for Masi America. Unfortunately, Mario died very young, and his masterpieces in America have achieved enormous values. Related