‘Like Henry Ford, I will sell you a bike in any colour you like, as long as it is Blue…’ Alfredo Gios
Alfredo Gios began working for his dad’s company in 1948. His father, Tolmino was a former professional rider, who represented Italy in the Olympic Games of Berlin in 1936. The association with the Brooklyn chewing gum company and subsequent Brooklyn professional team launch led the Gios shade of Blue which fitted the brand perfectly.
The Gios brand were well represented in the Classics, thanks to the Brooklyn team. The team were specialists for the tough, northern European early season races. Roger De Vlaeminck, their star rider, was a legendary 4 times Paris Roubaix winner, featuring heavily in the iconic 1976 film, ‘A Sunday in Hell’.
The Gios Blue was a colour often seen in bike rider bunches through the 1970’s and 1980’s and although rarer than other Italian brands, Gios had a strong core of supporters. In the late 1970’s Gios supplied the bikes for the Belgian Ijsboerke-Gios team and Didi Thurau. Thurau won stages of the Tour of Italy and the 1978 Liege Bastogne Liege. During the 1990’s the Kelme team collaborated with Gios and kept the Italian brand at the forefront of the cycling world. Today Gios produce framesets and bikes to the same high standards from Torino, Italy.