jamesdak 

Well just picked it up today right before an incoming early snow storm. Hopefully I can get it out for a test in a a couple of days.

I went with a 10 speed Record Ti groupset I had on hand. I did swap in a set of S.R. brakes though as the record ones I had were silver. Wheels are some decent Carbon Fiber tubulars with 700 x 27 Vittoria Pave CG tubulars. I used a Cinelli stem with my first set of Soma HWY one bars. Seatpost is a Thomson and the saddle was just something I had around. I still need to see if I can find another decent Fizik Kurve Chameleon for it. Pedals are run of the mill Look Keos and the bottle cages are just plain ol' Bontrager alloys.

With everything on it this one came in as my lightest bike at an even 18 lbs. Of course that mean's I've got to save at least another ounce on it somewhere so I can vainly know I've got a 25 year old steel bike that's under 18 lbs. Silly, I know, LOL!

Anyway it was freezing outside and snow was coming in but I managed to grab a couple quick shots with a P&S. Not my usually quality but they do show how the bike turned out.

The bike:



Paint and decals in really nice shape:



French Headset for French Made Excell Podium tubing:



Fastback seat stays:



Digging the BB area:



Flat crown Fork, ahhhh:

jetboy 

beautiful! just take off one cage

jamesdak 

Two inches of snow this morning so no test ride today.

jamesdak 

Well, two test rides on this. Neither good, unfortunately. The first ride had the seatpost slipping bad even though the binder bolt seemed tight. Reality is it was too long and bottomed out on itself. I also had a ticking up front. Oh and the saddle is not to my liking. Giving it a try since it came on another bike recently. So, put on the right size binder bolt, taped off the valve stems as they came through the rims and threw on a brand new cassette. The used one I got with this groupset was too worn and giving me a noisy drivetrain. All the normal fun that comes with sorting out this old bikes with used parts.

Today's ride was great mechanically. Still not liking the saddle but I have a new preferred Fizik Kurve on hand. Just need to get with Thomsen for the right seatpost clamp. The ticking is gone so it was the valve stems and the cassette ran great.

Unfortunately I woke up with a pounding headache and dizziness for some reason. Didn't feel like riding but I took it out anyway. Was doing OK and the bike was feeling great. Well, except for the saddle. Around mile 22 I punched up the speed to 25 mph to run a set of consecutive tight 90 degree turns. BIke took off well and felt great as I leaned it over deeply in the turns at speed. But halfway into the series I just fell apart. I must be sick cause the rest of the ride was spent with my head spinning as much as the wheels, LOL!

Anyway, so while the bike is now sorted all out. It's still waiting on me to give it a proper run. Won't be tomorrow cause this ol' vet will be out in Red, White, and Blue on the Red, White, and Blue PDG Paramount honoring my brother in arms.

RobbieTunes

My size. Ship it ASAP and suffer no more.

jamesdak 

Finally got some time to take some proper shots of it.

jiangshi

I've had a couple of Giordana's pass through my hands over the years, unfortunately they were not my size. They were close enough to test ride, but not to keep.

They are fine bicycles, a sleeper in the steel C&V market.

jamesdak 

obrentharris 

Beautiful bike, very nicely appointed!
Brent

Lascauxcaveman 

It looks brand new. What year is the frame?

jamesdak 

Not sure on either of the ones I own. Best I can tell is they are in the 1994-1998 age range.

This one was a Bikyle one the the original owner got with a C.F. fork. He searched and found the right matching steel fork. Spent time in the U.K. being ridden, but not a lot.

The paint on these seems more durable than my earlier Giordana's. My other XL Super now has a lot of miles on it over rough chipseal roads that's always kicking gravel up onto my bikes. It's still in great shape too.

jamesdak 

Well, this is fully finished now. Got in the needed clamp assembly and swapped in a needed setback seatpost as well as my preferred Fizik Kurve saddle. Took off the squeaky Look Sprint pedals and put on a set of Look Blades. It's now dialed in to my fit correctly and is under 18 lbs as in this current picture. 17 lbs 14 ozs. I met my silly goal without compromising anything.

horatio 

You've given me some inspiration for a future build. Except for the cassette! lol

jamesdak 

LOL, this is certainly one of my ride fast, stay out of the mountains bikes. Well probably.

I have been known to take a couple of my 42T small chainring bikes up the mountains when I feel like punishing my quads. None have a climbing cassette on them either. So this 39T small ring will be a luxury, LOL!

I did my 25 mile route on this yesterday and it rode great. I did find myself sliding forward on the saddle when running at the higher speeds. I need to tilt the nose up a tad to since it's not quite level.

crank_addict

Appealing!

BTW- Whatever happened to the French company Excell and specifically its tubing for bikes? Kind of a short run for the bike tubing, mid / late 1980s to late 90's, a few prestigious custom framebuilders used their high end for small dimension frames. Seam type like USA True Temper?

jamesdak 

Well the owner of Excell kept most of the proprietary info in his head they say. He was literally lost at sea years ago and with him went the company.

Somewhere in the Gita warehouse is still a frame made with very thin steel and reinforced with carbon fiber inside the steel.

sauze

Very beautiful bike!

CO_Hoya 

MacSteel? There was a discussion about that several years ago (link).

jamesdak 

This was the information I got from Nelson Frazier at Gita years ago:

"The Giordana frames were quite nice and, especially the ones built were Excel tubing, were pretty unique and cutting edge for the time. The geometry was dialed in by the owner of Gita with assistance from Dario Pegoretti, who built most of the prototype frames. The head engineer at Excel, Isadoro, was a bit of a “mad scientist” who came up with some wild ideas to try for tubing. Someplace here we have a superlight steel tubeset with a carbon fiber wrap on the inside so it could be welded! Excel had the capability to make one-off tubesets long before anyone else did and were able to do a lot of experimentation. Unfortunately, Isadoro disappeared during a sailing expedition and most of this capability was lost. This was also around the time aluminum frames were becoming commonplace in the peloton and steel was on its way out. There were some truly revolutionary prototypes built about this time that never saw production. I’m sure you’ll enjoy it."

bensamz

Very nice. In all seriousness, lemme know if you ever would like to sell either one.

RobbieTunes

Another gem.