Originally Posted by
mrrabbit
I ride a 2001 Sintesi...
It is definitely not a criterium bike - it has what I describe as a tad of understeer - I have to force the bike into a sharp turn when I need to...
The seatube is laid back - the headtube is laid back as well - so reach and comfort is not a problem.
It is definitely a road bike that can handle distance with comfort - and race if necessary. It does fine on hills - but it ain't a stiff Masi 3V if that's what you want...
On descents - handling is excellent - you are completely in control even at 50 MPH - i.e., no jitter concerns.
My wife calls it hanging art when I'm not riding it...it really does grab folks eyeballs.
Gios Compacts are very nice framesets...however paint can be an issue. A friend of mine likes Gios - he has a couple - and both came out of the box with obvious paint defects. Despite the paint - he is quite happy with his Gios's.
=8-)
Paint can be an issue if the bike was mishandled during shipping. I bought a 19 year old Gios with 30k km on it in almost pristine condition (it had scratches only where they can be expected, namely rear dropouts).