I met Vincenzo Forgione as a dear friend, a mountain biker, Vincenzo S., in 2020, spoke to me about a dear fellow cyclist who had started an artisan workshop a few years ago.

My friend Vincenzo spoke to me so enthusiastically about the kinematic dynamics of steel and its durability that shortly afterwards, out of curiosity, I bought a used steel bicycle.

But the first purchase was a 1995 Giant Expedition with 700x30 tires.

Soon, finding the steel bike riding very comfortable, also considering my weight 115kg, I started looking for a compatible frame for my height of 1.84m

It happened that in those days I had disposed of a 2016 Haibike Greed carbon MTB, in fact I considered that I was starting to walk more bumpy paths and I didn't want to find myself in trouble with a cracked frame.

The haibike guarantee seemed uncertain and I preferred to bet on steel.

The components

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I had some spare bike parts aside as an upgrade on the Haibike and I decided to install them on the Forgione:

• Dt Swiss Spline 1900 rims,
• handlebar with handlebar stem in 780mm carbon and weighing 250g;
• I took the bold idea of ​​removing the suspension thru-axle fork to install a carbon fork that could accommodate up to 2.6 "front tires

The finished bike had a total weight without accessories between 11.6kg and 12kg.

One Saturday afternoon I went out with two biker friends, Giuseppe and Mimmo for an easy ride but it rained. They were passing clouds, so, smiling but wet, we covered ourselves as best we could and continue the ride.

We walked a slightly uphill and then downhill country road made up of leaves and pebbles.

The rain was at its peak: the country girls had deep ruts filled with water.

impressions

I had a 36 d on the front derailleur and an 11v chainring behind and I chose a 20d nuna.

While pedaling, I noticed that the bike was fast and didn't give me big vibrations.

I noticed that while I was pedaling, putting all my strength on the pedals, the rear triangle actually flexed following the roughness and giving an enviable comfort.

After a while I stopped to look back and noticed that my friends weren't there. After a few minutes the two bikers with aluminum mtb arrived. I had spaced them quite a lot.

In summer 2021, after a few months of use, the front crankset was transformed by me into a double 2x12 with 22t + 36t front crankset, this to allow you to tackle even demanding climbs.

With this mtb they reached an altitude of 1100m for the first time in my life with the same friends of the first outing in the rain.

The feeling is of being inside the bike because Forgione has already built this custom frame with the geometry of an all mountain even if it was in fact a Mtb front.

Angled steerer tube is much higher than the saddle attachment, long rear stay. Today if you look at the competition and take for example a Ritchey or a Salsa you will not find great differences with the choices and experiences of Telai Forgione.

I met Vincenzo Forgione in the laboratory in Gesualdo for some advice and he is extremely helpful

After some time spent using his Forgione bicycle (the day of delivery he came to Gesualdo to pick it up )

Gianni sent us the following text which we report, as usual, without changes on our part. Thanks Gianni!

I met Vincenzo Forgione 5 years ago, shortly after I bought my new carbon bike. I had had a number of experiences with other bikes: aluminum / carbon, aluminum only and my old steel bike, which I thought was obsolete. This new carbon bike satisfied me, but knowing the qualities and characteristics of steel well and having studied them, I was left with the passion of a custom-made steel bike.

For a bike, the main feature is the size of the frame which must be perfectly adapted to each individual build.
This aspect, however, is omitted by all manufacturers and retailers who confuse ideas, offering you a series of technological innovations that are certainly beautiful and sometimes useful, but the idea of ​​being able to make up for the right measure with the tolerances of the handlebar support and the saddle adjustment is not correct as each of us has measures that are almost never perfectly proportioned, therefore we adapt.

The weight of a bike is the simplest technical characteristic for everyone to understand and in fact it is perhaps the first thing you ask a dealer, yet it is not the most important technical data but it is good to know that if you only think about the weight you have to spend a lot of money for super light components.

In June I was finally able to commission Vincenzo for my custom-made bike and I bought medium-level components and when I got on the saddle I experienced a particular sensation, I felt the bike that merged with my body and I had never tried anything. similar to the other bikes, steel absorbs the roughness of the asphalt well and when you pedal you feel the elasticity of the frame that gives you back all the energy you unload on the pedals.

I could have avoided all these words and simply said thank you to Vincenzo but knowing him is a fortune and not only for his art, passion and patience but because he is a sincere, open and respectable person, gifts increasingly rare to find!

Thanks Gianni, send us more photos of your bike rides!