jamesdak 

So, I've been enjoying all the picture threads and thought it would be nice to get one that consolidates the few Giordana's that BF'ers have. So let's see them, post a picture or two of your ride.

I'm still hoping to add another one to my stable too.

I'll start it with my 1989 Antares. Columbus Cromor with a 6 speed Dura Ace 7400 setup. I'm currently having some HED Belgium C2 rims laced to the original Dura Ace hubs. Can't wait to get it up and running again! The bike is pretty much original except for putting on new Velocal replacement decals since the old ones had dried up really bad and were flaking off.







From back when Shimano's cranks looked good.

RobbieTunes

I don't have one, but I'm a sucker for the backgammon paint schemes. French Excell tubing was excellent stuff, and the frame builders that used it really liked it.

jamesdak 

And another one.

The is a later 90s I was able to get NOS this winter directly from Gita. Its an Excell Podium tubed XL Super. They didn't have anymore matching forks but did have a chrome Podium Eco (next level down from the Podium) fork. Built up with a silver Campagnolo Athena 11-speed setup I was able to piece together. Rides like a dream.

As I got it:







Multi-colored paint job and simple hand painted black details!



And as built and now ridden for close to 2000 miles so far this year.





It's now got a set of Shamal Ultra wheels on it I got dirt cheap when all the British prices dropped. Dropped 15 ozs off the all ready light bike.

RobbieTunes

Very well put and illustrated. I re-post merely to emphasize.

artclone

[/URL]



1989 Giordana Scorpius

lesterp66

Those are all beauts!

plonz 

Couldn't resist.

I know nothing about Giordana bikes but I'm a huge fan of their cycling apparel. Pricey but noticeably better quality in my experience.

verktyg 

I picked up this Giordana Capella frame a few years back. The person that I bought it from sold Giordanas back in the 1990's. He said that it was made by Pegoretti.

After doing a bunch of research on Giordanas here's the best info that I came up with:

"The Giordana bike brand was the house label for Gita, a supplier of bikes and clothing. Gita was the US distributor for Merckx, Pinarello, and De Rosa bike lines. They wanted a high-end frameset that would offer great quality at a slightly lower price point than the other brands they carried. Thus, the Giordana was born! Gita enlisted the assistance of Dario Pegoretti in designing the prototypes of the frames before they turned the final production over to Billato.

Billato is a contract master frame builder in Italy who made many frames that carried other famous labels, such as Ciocc, LeMond, Masi, Cinelli Super Corsa, Concorde, and others.

In 1992, the Capella represented the entry level of the Giordana line. It came in 3 models:

Crono - a time trial version with sloping top tube and a 26" front wheel
Strada - the basic road version
Pursuit - another version with a 26" front wheel

All 3 used Oria ML25 tubing with investment cast fork crown and standard lugs.

If the frame is Ferrari red or Cobalto blue, it is the Strada. Anything else and its one of the other versions.

Giordana's, because they were "farmed out" never got the recognition they deserved. They are very nice frames that generally don't bring a lot in resale because they came from a clothing company. But they are well made by reputable builders and worth taking a closer look."

The workmanship and cosmetics on mine are superb. I need to put it together and ride in someday...

Original eBay Pictures....

verktyg
Chas.

jamesdak 

To reinforce the comments above. This is part of the email traffic with the Gita rep while I was getting the one bike:

"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."
__________________

jamesdak 

Beautiful!

Ummm, when that frame starts getting lonely for family just send it my way to be reunited with it's siblings.

jamesdak 

I also emailed Dario's site when I got the second Giordana and the legend himself responded! Biker dudes are soooo cool!

jamesdak 

I finally re-shot the XL-Super with the Shamal's mounted. The new wheels got the bike down to a very respectible 19 lbs 9 ozs as you see it.

As you can see by the bar tape this one sees a lot of use, my favorite ride.

jamesdak 

And the Antares with the upgraded wheelset, SL23's laced to the Dura Ace Hubs. Oh and the new saddle that I think matches this bike perfectly.

dougb

[QUOTE=artclone;18983906]



1989 Giordana Scorpius[/QUOTE

artclone I'm curious how you determined your Giordana's vintage. Mine has the same paint scheme. I assume it has the same tubing (Columbus SL). The previous owner removed the decals. So I can only assume it's also a Scorpius. I can't find a serial number. Have you seen your bike in a catalog?


58 SL

jamesdak 

I've only ever seen one catalog on these so it can be hard to pin down an actual year.

https://pbase.com/jhuddle/giordana_catalog


This does match up to the other Scopius models. Full painted fork, chrome on the driveside chainstay only, external cable for the rear brake, and of course SL tubing. If it truly is SL tubing then the Scorpius is the model they made with that tube set.

If you pull off the seatpost and look down the seat tube is should be all smooth, no ridges. You might also find a "SL" stamped on the fork steerer if you remove it, or a label.

Additionally if you either email Billato with pics of the bike, especially the underside of the BB, or hit them up on the facebook page , they may respond with info on the bike. I've had about 50/50 luck with getting an answer back from them in the past.

rjhammett

cyclic_eric

Exceptionally nice Spica!

jamesdak 

Since this has been revived I guess I can add a couple more.

Polaris with a nice Dura Ace build


Another XL Super. This was built up with much better parts than the yellow/red one above. The goal was to improve on the original one with better parts and a lighter weight. This was a 17 lb bike fully built when I got done with it. But I still like the original one better. Had this one for sale locally now at about 1/2 the cost of everything I put into it. No takers though so one of these days I'm pulling off the parts and then I'll sell the frame. It's an exceptional ride but no sense in having two of them.





I never got around to building up this Scorpius. Sold off the frameset about 2 years ago.
​​​​​​​

cyclic_eric

As usual, your bikes are artwork jamesdak. The red Polaris scene is awesome!

CO_Hoya 

I guess I never posted to this thread:

XL-Super, ‘93-ish shown w/ Campy 10v. I rebuilt with Shimano R8000 over the winter, but no pics yet. Honestly, it looks prettier like this than now.



Allegedly the first one of this particular model run, fwiw.