Giordana FormaRed Carbon Bib Shorts

When it was time to create a team kit for Team Two Wheel, we talked to our LBS shop owner about the brands he likes and who does limited number custom jerseys. He didn't hesitate at all and turned us towards Gita Sports and Giordana. Not being your "regular" bike shop rats, but instead a certain type of high-brow bike shop rat, I wanted to do some investigation.

Step One - Ask Rider 1. He happened to be standing next to me at the time. His response was something like, "Giordana stuff is great! When I managed the ________ team (fill in the name of some 80's national caliber team the name of which only true bike geeks would recognize), we used all Giordana stuff and the team loved it. When you make your living on a bike, you get picky and you can't believe some of the stuff I got asked about, but the guys always liked their Giordana stuff." That sounded promising.

Step Two - Ask Rider 2. This step was a bit more suspect because Rider 2 really likes some bike stuff, but he is also very particular about things. I don't think that there is an ancient Italian man living inside Rider 2, as that would be very strange indeed, but there are indications at times that this is the case. As a result, he can be very particular and always with a good reason. When questions like this come up, Quicksilver has been known to say things like, "Well, when I was racing in 199__, I knew this guy who had a cousin that bought a box of _____ from this other guy who ______ and then we traded that for some new racing kit because the other pair of racing shorts that I really loved had actually flown out the window of a borrowed panel van when I was on the way to a race in Oregon, but those were the best/worst/tightest/loosest/scratchiest/comfortablest/fuzziest/chunkiest shorts I ever had." In other words, you don't really have any idea what Rider 2 might say in response to a question like this, you just know you are going to enjoy hearing it and you know he will have an opinion. In this case, his response was a bit more generic than I am used to, but the bottom line was, "great, I love their stuff." Another good sign.

Step 3 - Look at the catalogue provided to us by Two Wheel Transit. Look in particular for product photos similar to the body paint bib short ad by some other brand (Thanks to Michelle for sharing your work!). Realize that while Giordana is an Italian product, Mario Cipolinni is not their art director. Continue a more serious look for product information to familiarize oneself with the line-up of shorts and their particular pitch.

From Product Testing

Step 4 - Jeeves it. Just kidding, I googled it like the rest of America when we want to know something or need to plagiarize a term paper. I came across some but frankly not a lot of information about Giordana shorts.

Step 5 - Get Rider 1 to design team kit, get fantastic service and follow-up from Gita Sports contact doing a semi-custom jersey with our team logo (see masthead above), and our three sponsors' names - Two Wheel Transit, Desautel Hege Communications and the Steam Plant Grill.

Step 6 - Wait, impatiently.

Step 7 - Place order for bib shorts for me and Rider 1, along with a pair of non-bib shorts for Rider 2. Undoubtedly there is a story that goes with this decision.

Step 8 - Wait, impatiently.

Step 9 - Have jerseys arrive, followed quickly by shorts arrival.

Step 10 - Love the stuff and then blog about it.

See remainder of Step 10 on this blog, tomorrow.