Help identifying Alan bike with interesting Giant wheels

[nj_cisca]

Hi, hoping someone knowledgeable might be able to help identify or provide some info on this Alan bike. I've been offered it for what seems a good price and was thinking about using it through the rest of the winter while im in the process of building up a steel bike for summer.

I'm familiar with the early bonded Alan frames and they now seem to make some pretty fancy carbon stuff but I've not seen one like this before. I'm guessing its maybe late 90s? Dropouts look as if they are bonded to the chainstay and bolted to the seatstay. There are no tubing decals just a sticker saying "producto garantito alan made in italy".

Also of interest are the wheels which are labelled Giant and seem to have carbon hums and spokes laced to FIR rims. My knowledge is mainly limited to shiny old steel stuff so i'm out of my depth here!

 

[mattsccm]

An interesting bit of kit there, spoilt by a seat too low and that horrid stem.
I would like that in my shed.

 

[nj_cisca]

Yeh the setup was all wrong, I borrowed it to try out and was just as the seller had left it.
Also I've just seen some wheels that look like these sat at £160 on ebay with a good few days left - I thought they were just cheap gimmicky things!
May be worth it as an investment even though its not really my cuppa tea.

 

[bobbinogs]

It might be worth dropping an email to the maker to help identify the bike and the year of manufacture. The chap is still going strong and was very helpful to me. I did use an online translator (into Italian) and that seemed to work very well, the detail will be in my next post as I cannot do a link yet...

 

[bobbinogs]

...

http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtop ... t=12730961

Here is the bike now:

http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtop ... t=12785234

Hope that helps.

 

[nj_cisca]

Thanks i'll drop them an email, its good to know makers are willing to help identify older bike.
Yours looks great btw, always liked older Alans with slim tubing.

 

[one_bad_mofo]

I'm sure I reviewed a set of those wheels for Cycling Today BITD. I'll try and remember to take a look at my old magazines tonight and check.

 

[Old Ned]

The wheels were supplied with the early giant TCR bikes in the late 90's. I sold one with the wheels but when I bought it back a couple of years later they had gone - and the then owner couldn't remember what he'd done with them!

 

[nj_cisca]

Thanks for the info on the wheels, looked up the Giant bike you mentioned and found the wheels are EXT 'pro carbon'. They can be trued with an allen bolt through the top of the rim. Really interesting bit of design, wouldnt fancy breaking a spoke in the middle of nowhere though..!

 

[one_bad_mofo]

Okay according to what I wrote at the time, the wheels were designed for Giant by Mike Burrows. They'll take an eight or nine-speed Shimano cassette and the rims are specially drilled Rigida DP18s. Oh and they cost £375 a pair when they were new back in 1998.