Six Peeps

June 21, 2007

GIOS MIO!

To follow up from my recent post on which set of wheels to go with… I was chosing between German-Made Fixie Inc. and Italian classic, Bianchi. My final decision…
…is NEITHER!

I wanted the following:
1. Classic Steel-Frame with character
2. Italian-made (of course)… but there are so many dang Bianchis around here… I wanted something different and something I can really call my own.
3. Something I could build up myself
4. Horizontal dropouts (of course)

Well since then I shot a quick email to GIOS, Italian bike-maker. I remember when I was in Philly a few weeks ago, I saw one bike that stopped me in my tracks, it was an old steel-frame GIOS. It was in pretty bad shape, but you could tell it’s owner really loved it because despite all the chipped paint and dents, etc, it was pristine clean, clean chain, etc. Parked with pride outside of Jim’s Steak Sandwich place.

So anyway, I peeked into craigslist, even in San Francisco, where you think you could find any bike ever made, and no love on the GIOS. So I emailed the company in Italy. I get an email back from Alfredo Gios, one of the original Gios brothers, who apparently likes to take customer inquiries himself. He was at home, but said he’d check the factory and see what sort of old frames he has. When he wrote back with this photo, Gios Blue 1980 vintage track frame, never been ridden, in my size, I decided that this was just meant to be.

Here he is, sitting on a cardboard box in Turin, Italy. Tomorrow it will be leaving on a jet-plane, and into my hands for a long, loving relationship. :p

The other great thing about this is that I can build it myself, so here and there I’ll build some wheels, get a nice crank, yada yada yada, and make a nice fixie out of it. I’m hoping I can get some good advice from the messengers here in Denver on how to make this one bomber fixie.

I’m hanging on to my Giant Bowery, and I think I’ll put the straight bars and the car scratchers on that. Will be my rainy/muddy day bike, and the GIOS will be my fancy, luxurious townie that I will use on special occasions, like a hot date with Jenny over to Melting Pot for some Fondue or something. ha!

Here’s the grungy Bowery, which will always hold a special place in my heart:

I rode this yesterday to a meeting that consisted of about 10-15 wedding photographers. It’s so funny the response you get when you roll in on a bike. I think people assume I am poor or something… you know, like I can’t afford a car. There were several photographers who I knew, or at least recognized, but some who I have never met. Kent, my good friend here announced me to everyone as “his messenger friend, Mark”. Not everyone knew he was joking. Then I sat down and this woman asked me, “So… what do you do? Do you have a business?”. I told her that I was a wedding photographer, and she asked me something like, “who do you work for”. I was chuckling inside, not because I think that I am ALL THAT, but because if I were dressed with khakis and a polo shirt with my company logo embroidered on it, people would probably not wonder about who I am or where I came from, but I hate polo shirts with logos… and khakis.

I ordered three Red Bull and Cherry Vodka cocktails, total college drinking, but you should try one, they are soooo good, especially if you are planning a late night of work, just don’t drink TOO many. I had some really great conversation with everyone, and everyone was super nice. Actually it dispelled a few myths I had about my competition - they are not all passive-aggressives like the few bad apples I know of.

June 21, 2007 |