Mandalor

I posted in classic and vintage awhile back trying to get an idea on value of my Confente that my wife's grandfather had. I received some suggestions and PMS in that thread and wanted to mention it on here as well since I still need a couple posts to be able to see my PM's. I have several other vintage Campy parts as well. Trying to find someone to help my get a valuation and possibly sell.

Mandalor

Photos to come

3alarmer 

.
...there are not that many surviving Confente frames, and the prices are all over the place. I'm not sure what sort of provenance you'll need, but there are some people who visit in here who seem to know the details that will appear on the genuine article. I am not one of them, but good luck with it.

brian3069

Confente's have been on my Ebay watch list for the last 10 years, or so. I only recall 3 being sold. One in rough condition went for about $7,000. The other 2 were in much better condition, they sold in the $10,000 neighborhood.

BMC_Kid 

Kabuki12

Huh?

3alarmer 

.
...well hush my mouf' and call me sugar. What are the odds that a real one would show up here, of all places ?

BMC_Kid 

Nice looking bike. Would be nice to see some close-up detailed photos of the craftmanship of Confente.

Chombi1 

That "Pro -Strada" decal on the drive side chain stay, didn't the Medici bikes have the same decal on their frames??

himespau 

Do you have the original parts?

Kabuki12

it is similar , Medici reversed the color scheme

3alarmer 

...the bulk of the discussion about this bicycle seems to be in the other thread about Confente's.

plonz 

Looks like a nice bike. Those Paselas are an odd choice though.

zukahn1 

Very nice bike, looks like they may have with the Paselas because there likely about the widest vintage looking tires that would work with this frame set and wheels.

repechage

yes and no.
Originally the yellow with the black drop shadow was Confente.
Medici had access to the art and screens and Medici used black Type and a yellow drop shadow.

later after the lockout, that cascade of issues starting with Mario picking up by error Medici’s transfer order…
when it was time for Medici to reorder, they used the Confente color schedule.

does make one think if Mario had gotten up and running in Cardiff by the Sea… would he have continued that model naming designation?
a few of his last bikes made in Northern Cal did not have chainstay graphics and one just Pro-

what an intricate story cut short.

keep in mind that Bill Recht was the guy with the money for both brands.

repechage

I looked at the bike on a decently sized screen. I cannot confirm where the shift cables go. Maybe cross wired left to right?
the top tube appears to have the brake cable running internal, this did show up later on a few, but not for a while.
I have two versions referenced of how this was done on others.
‘the front derailleur braze-on tab was done at a respray. They did not exist when this frame was created.
there are other details that this one image does not really assist in clarifying.

One issue being the frame spacing at the rear, uses Campagnolo 1994 or so Ergo integrated shift and brake levers.
‘unknown the qty of cogs in back, a good chance the frame was re-spaced to accept a 130mm wide hub.

Obviously even with all the foibles, the bike has high value, just not that many out there.

as I wrote previously, a number of the refinishers place a transfer on the off drive side chainstay to “sign” their work.
As the bike is in California, a good chance Cyclart did the deed(s) that is just conjecture until confirmed.

repechage

plenty surviving, one resurrected. But some are just very elusive, there was one in Stockton Ca, it was sitting as a frame in someone’s garage, imaged in the background of a CL offering for a BMX bike.
‘the fellow wanted nothing to do with anyone asking about the dark green metallic frame. It was there but no interest in communications about it.
‘the advert was curious, one image had a picture of a phone number, no other means to communicate.
an eccentric bunch of owners perhaps.

AdventureManCO 

Speaking to the one ‘resurrected’. I wonder which one you are referring to.

Out at the Eddy Rando vintage bike show last year was Joe Gangl and his Confente ‘tribute’, which started off as a real Confente that Joe ordered from Mario, but Mario passed before the frame was complete and the bits sent to Joe. When Joe became a talented builder in his own right he finished the work Mario started. I doubt that this one is counted among any serials attributed to Mario as we know them.






One day I’ll own a Confente. Not today, maybe not tomorrow. But one day. I dig this one for its ‘riding prowess’ - obviously the owner made changes that resulted from making it the best rider for them. While those changes likely affect value, they make its history interesting. Glad the IP shared this one with us.

repechage

I was aware that Gängl had made one, unknown to me where the connections came from. Thanks for the images.
That is not the bike I was referring to. There are some subtle differences from the Joe authored tribute and the originals, he did a pretty darn good job overall.
I should have purchased one of his bikes a decade ago, it looked terrific.

The bike I was referring to was presented on BF, it had been crashed and repaired by someone who worked with what was at hand. Note that at one point these were just old race bikes.
I got the owner in contact with Brian Baylis, asking Brian first if he was interested.
Brian repaired the front triangle and painted it. Turns out it might have been the last bike torch work Brian did.
It was soon enough sold on eBay, acknowledging the work.

there was another on eBay, it was curious, think Confente/Medici fusion. Seat stays and bridge appear Medici like, fork like an early Fischer crowned Masi fork. That frame set was withdrawn from offer. No idea where it went. Offered by an estate broker, he realized the story he was told lacked enough substance prompting him to remove the listing.
I received confirmation that when Mario was locked out from his LA shop that there were two or three frames in process.
From the metalwork I am of the strong opinion they were finished by Medici at some point. The serial number scheme on that one frame was not of the Confente formats.

And there is another, a Pista frame set without spade cutouts and the stay ends different left to right. It was blank and painted in the white/yellow Confente colorway much later.
This was a time study bike, there is another Confente Pista that probably shares geometry. There was a plan to have a second line, details have not been confirmed.
an interesting history for sure.

AdventureManCO 

Joe had just retired the year before this event, which was almost a tease, seeing these bikes up close, knowing he's a framebuilder, and knowing you won't get one! The work that I saw up close was impeccable. VERY well done. I actually very surprised that I had not heard of his name before that, mixed in with a lot of other custom American framebuilder names. I think he did the paint as well, which if true, is really saying something because good paintwork is notoriously difficult and even on extremely high end bikes, I sometimes notice little paint blemishes if I look long enough. None of that here.

I hope the OP sticks around for a while, and/or gets the assistance they were looking for.

repechage

Gängl did his own paint.

past World Master Sprint champion too. The World stripes were earned.

Doug Fattic 

It's Rich Gangl by the way, not Joe Gangl. And yes he is one of the few very top tier frame builders - American or any one else in the world. He has the broadest range of skills that I know any framebuilder possesses. We attended the very 1st titanium class UBI offered a bit over 30 years ago. I came by Denver and picked him up in my van and we traveled together.to Oregon. I just texted to ask him where it was we found a good place to have Thanksgiving diner in Wyoming on our way. As already mentioned, he is an exceptional painter. He can braze steel frames, tig weld titanium frames as well as aluminum frames. He has an incredible shop in Golden.

It has always been interesting to me that those of my colleagues I consider to be the very best are often not well known nationally. Paradoxically those that take the most time to do the best possible job of course have a reduced output that reduces recognition. When I hear recommendations of what builder to choose, what I hear most often are those that have done the best job marketing and promoting their brand and not who actually works to the highest quality. Rich's interest has always been on the racing side because he has been a racer himself ever since high school. He was one of the very 1st American framebuiders to get 753 certification (I think he was #2 after Jim Merz). This was when a full frame had to be sent to England to check alignment and adequate brazing at every joint.

AdventureManCO 

You're totally right - no idea where I came up with 'Joe' ! Thank you for the correction.

Wish I had heard about him sooner. When I got back from our event last year, I immediately looked him up and was dismayed to see he had just retired - although good for him! It's still great to have his involvement in other capacities, however, along with Mark Nobilette, in the front range area.

That picture I took of the Confente tribute bike in the foreground shows Rich with his back to the camera, while Mark receives an award for his long-lasting contributions to the bicycle community.

Robvolz 

There is a Joe involved in that last frame; that would be painter Joe Bell when hearing about Rich Gangl’s project, sent him the last set of decals he had.

Doug Fattic 

Now that he has retired, Rich has enjoyed making a number of tribute bikes. An admirer of Eddy Merckx, he has as a goal to make every one of the bikes Eddy used when he rode for different companies during his career. He spent a long time recreating his hour record bike. That required a lot of study on his part. I'll attach a picture of it. Of course he made it his size instead of Eddy's. I was able to supply him with the correct Columbus seat stays.

You might want to consider getting a frame made by Jeff Bock before he quits. He workshop is in Ames, Iowa (home of Iowa State University). He is an excellent painter as well as builder. There is a limited number of people that can both paint and build to an excellent standard.

Rich Gangl's replica of Eddy Merckx's hour bike