[CR] Gios Before Brooklyn

I used to work for what was at the time the biggest GIOS dealer in Germany and spent quite a bit of time with Alfredo. He told me that they became involved with "RACING" as a follow-up to a successful sales promotion that they had run with the maker of Brooklyn gum. In fact, Gios had been the company chosen to supply the banana-seat monkey-barred bikes awarded by Brooklyn to selected winners. The promotion was a resounding success and the owner of the confectioner then moved "up" in the cycling world to pro road racing. When the decision to make the jump was made, he immediately spoke to Gios. Up until that point, Gios was specialized in the production of gas-pipe "family" bikes. They did not even have anybody able to build pro-level frames on staff. They therefore had the bikes made by outside suppliers, eventually bringing production in house. The success of the Brooklyn team was such that they quickly adapted their production to high-end products. The ebay bike http://tinyurl.com/y8vryza is therefore the quality norm for Gios bikes in the first decades of the company's existence.

Steven Maasland
Moorestown, NJ
USA