Hmmmm... what a cool bike... never heard of it!

Guest contributor Chuck, from the USA, contributed this story during the reader contest period:

Hmmmm... what a cool bike... never heard of it!

"The precise moment when something important happens in your life is seldom caught on film... this snapshot is a rare exception.

Summer 1976, Griffith Park Road Race, Los Angeles, California... my wife Sherry has just snapped a picture of our six year old daughter Christa as the three of us watch the race. I'm 31, have been riding half a year and lost around 25 pounds, and am wearing matching Cool Gear jersey and hat (nobody owned a helmet back then), nylon Kucharik Helanca shorts, Adidas Super Eddy Merckx shoes and riding a full-Campy, Blue Mink/Silver, 1974 Raleigh Professional Mk. IV that I'm real proud of.

I'm staring at a white and yellow bike with a name I've never heard of and the thing literally takes my breath away! The closer I look, the more amazing details there are to see! I literally can't take my eyes off the thing! The decal says "Confente" and the guy bending over to clean the gravel out of his cleats is a guy I've never even heard of before, Mario Confente.

"Excuse me, but could you tell me about that bike you're riding?"


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Stories for the Italian Cycling Journal about rides, granfondos, having a good time cycling in Italy, Italian cycling history, etc. are always welcome. Contact me at veronaman@gmail.com. There are more than 1,700 stories in this blog. The search feature to the right works best for finding subjects in the blog. There is also an Italian weather widget along the right side and a translate button at the bottom so you can translate each page. What I'm riding.