Steve Maasland wrote:
"Grandis is one of those brands that is perhaps not all that well known in the US, but is actually quite well-respected in Italy. The bike is located in Verona, so perhaps Angel could help with packing and shipping for a small honorarium."
As many listmembers may already know, Grandis is a father-and-two-sons operation out of Verona. Up until a few years ago, they probably would have qualified as KOF, but it appears that they are no longer making all-steel frames... everything on their website now has carbon stays. A local shop used to import them, and every frame that came in was basically custom made to order - you could even get the decals in different colors. One of the coolest aspects of their frames is that they have proprietary dropouts, lugs, crowns, seatstay clusters and bottom bracket shells; not just standard stuff with pantographing, but unique designs. In the 90's (when they might have been considered KOF), nearly all of their better frames were made from custom-drawn variations of Columbus MAX tubing, again with custom lugs, bb shells, etc. My own Grandis is an Overmax Light, in which they combined a custom-drawn MAX set with a Genius top tube (to shave a gram, I suppose). Every place where paint meets chrome (half of all four stays and the forks), the striping is hand painted. There's even a gold & silver toned headbadge riveted to the headtube.
It's unfortunate that Grandis doesn't have the status of the other Italian brands. The detail work and construction as good or better than the others (with the exception of some from the early 80s that looked pretty much the same any other skinny tubed bike of era).
Apologies if this post is somewhat off-topic, but I wanted share my own experience so as to echo Steve in endorsing them. If you can hook into one on eBay, go for it.
IP Merkin
Providence, RI