Wednesday, August 19, 2009

THE GIRO AND EVOLUTION BEFORE RESTORATION

THE GIRO

The Avanti Giro showing it's nice lines, the first Avanti to be made of Reynolds 531c tubing as far as I know (although I could stand to be corrected on this). It came with a full Shimano 600 Groupset and Wobler rims, all and all a pretty nice package.
Frame weight; 2.186 kg, not bad for a 60cm frame (seat tube height)



THE EVOLUTION

Yeh
this is one cool bike, or I should say it will be when I have finished painting it in it's other colour option...satin black, this one is definitely my pick for a future classic, so hang one in your garage now.
(and if it's this terrible colour, come and see me about painting it satin Black).
I think this is a second generation Evolution model, with straighter front forks, if you check out the catalog photo above you will notice some pretty crazy frame angles, obviously to in an attempt to slow the steering down, so all the weekend tri riders wouldn't end up with a face full of road. Not a bad idea but not liked by the buying public I guess, as this 'year two' model looks more 'normal' with it's straighter forks.
I also am pretty sure these were only made for a couple of years, as they only pop up in one catalog that I have seen.
The Evolution came with a Suntour Accushift Plus group set, which as far as I can tell is a Suntour SL group with the cool "Gripshift" shifters on the tri bars, look I know it's a real gimmicky gadget, but what can I say, for some reason I think this is a neat bike, especially the series 1 with it's 74" 78" frame angles. Mark my words a future classic for sure.
Going to have to get my self one of these....
Frame Weight (she might be pretty but she ain't no light weight); 2.106 kg

2 comments:

  1. I'm sorry, but painting this bike black is like painting the face of Homer Simpson over the Mona Lisa. Why must people compulsively restore historical objects for restoration sake itself?

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  2. Hi Adrian. Just got given an evolution for free. Needs a saddle and tyres but otherwise looks pretty good. Was this Reynolds 531 like the Giro do you know? Nice little bike... Cheers Mark

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