I live in Canada and I was inside a Sports Experts store looking at Diadora bicycles. Does anyone here know about the quality of these bikes? I googled and apparently they had a deal with Cannondale. I was thinking if these are re-badged Cannondales, it might be worth it. I mean they have a bicycle with an Alivio rear derailleur for $400 Canadian and a Sora equipped bike for $600 Canadian.

Does anyone here think it's realistic to take a $350 Altus/Acera equipped bike, switch the rapidfire shifters to Falcon friction shifters and do 60 mile "trips" with it? It had Joytech hubs.

I'd like to take a bike like that, install chrome riser bars, Oury grips, Falcon friction shifters, silver Deore brake levers, and also switch the saddle, silver seatpost clamp and chrome seatpost. It didn't seem to be half-bad for a bike. I mean rigid forks and V-brakes with nothing fancy on it so it was actually light.

They told me the 17 inch model was for someone 5'4" to 5'7" but I'm 5'8 1/2" but I'm almost hot and horny to try out a somewhat smaller bike so I can have better maneuvrability. What do you think?

reasonable for their price point, I expect.

It's an Italian brand of clothing abd shoes for cycling mostly.
but they can write a contract to have someone paint their name on the frames
as well as anyone else..

look across the market at a similar price point , there will be similarities.

and the cost at the bottom line for the features will be largely equal ..

Shop the dealer first, then see what brands they carry
how much time does your LBS spent assembling them ?
what is their service after the sale ?