Home > Bike Types > Road Bike

Battaglin Altair, Amarcord & Casanova bring custom carbon production back to Italy

10 Comments
Support us! Bikerumor may earn a small commission from affiliate links in this article. Learn More

The Italian frame maker is expanding their custom frame making beyond classically built steel bikes with a new set of modern full carbon frames. The three new carbon road bikes adds top-level race performance to the customer service and customization they’ve already established in their product range.

Custom Italian carbon road bike frames from Battaglin

With decades of custom steel bike building expertise, Battaglin wanted to expand more into carbon as well. Their hallmark is full customization and a rider-centered approach, so they felt the need to develop the new carbon bikes as 100% designed and produced in Italy, where they can closely manage it all, including Italian-sourced materials. The lightweight carbon frames are crafted via tube-to-tube construction, with overwrapping of the joints that allows Battaglin to custom build to their design goals, while delivering premium functionality & performance.

The carbon bikes also bring with them a new level of finish customization for Battaglin. The new frames add an Ermitage Service that offers both custom paint & finish, beyond the more limited palette previously on offer, even with their custom bikes.

The process for the custom carbon frames takes place in the same Marostica, Italy shop where retired Giro & Vuelta winner Giovanni Battaglin keeps an eye on everything. Battaglin isn’t really new to carbon either, or certainly for that matter innovation. The year after Battaglin won both of those Grand Tours in 1981, his new bike company built the Pirana, one of the world’s first carbon road bikes. So advanced, it subsequently got banned from the Giro by 1985 already.

Altair

Of the new frames, the 3180€ Altair is the all-around racer. Built from UD Torayca T1000 carbon, it balances both all-day comfort and a few aero touches from its dropped stays to the smooth transition around the fork crown. Like all of the other bikes in the new carbon line-up, the Altair frame gets modular internal cable routing, integrated headsets, and a press fit BB86 bottom bracket. The frames all offer stock sizing to start from, plus the option for full custom geometry included in the same price. The first two are also only rim brake compatible (at least for the time being), with the Altair sporting direct mount calipers and the ability at least to clear a 28mm tire.

Amarcord

Without talking it down, the 3440€ Amarcord is Battaglin’s comfort bike. It is still a proper road race bike though, just for longer endurance races and the likes of Gran Fondos, again with 28mm tire clearance. The Amarcord cuts a more traditional profile, with deviation from round tubing around the bottom bracket & chainstays to add more performance while delivering a smooth ride. From tapered headtube to the custom made dropouts, the entire bike is laid-up of hi-mod UD fibers.

Casanova

The 3686€ Casanova is the fastest of Battaglin’s new road frames. The frame is optimized for aerodynamics, while still offering tube-to-tube customization and a Torayca T1000 3K hi-mod carbon construction. The bike gets dropped seatstays, an aero seatpost with an integrated post clamp, and a matching aero monocoque fork. Conceived as a sprinter’s bike, this is the one they see best fitting a pro road rider’s need for speed, maxing out at a 25mm tire. It is also the only one to offer disc brake compatibility, with a 12mm thru-axle version available.

Availability

As we saw introduced last year, a partnership with the Battaglin brand & Velofix means anywhere the shop-in-a-van reaches in the USA & Canada, consumers have easy access to the new custom Italian road bikes.

BattaglinRoadBikes.com

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

10 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
VeloKitty
VeloKitty
6 years ago

The Altair looks nice. But what experience do they have building carbon fiber frames?

The Casanova aero has huge gaps between the tires and the frame. That’s not aero.

Their steel bikes are gorgeous. Their chrome paint is gorgeous too, though probably not durable.

Robin
Robin
6 years ago

Those are nice looking frames…………if you ignore the decals.

Larry Falk
Larry Falk
6 years ago

What’s with the publicity shots with the seat jammed forward and the front QR facing downward?

1Pro
1Pro
6 years ago

nice to see Sarto has picked up another client!

VeloKitty
VeloKitty
6 years ago
Reply to  1Pro

Are these Sarto’s? Are Sarto’s good bikes?

Logan A
Logan A
5 years ago
Reply to  1Pro

Hahaha so True

Morten knudsen
Morten knudsen
6 years ago

owned 4 battaglin steel frames in the nineties and early zeroes. Lovely ride with magnificent geometry. Back then Battaglin did a lot ogf high quality OEM work for for butique shops.

Their latest steel creations for road and gravel looks sweet, nice to se them insource custom carbon again. One of the very few in Europe (and North America) – though i cant see beeing in the market for a carbon frame.

As a very early adaptor of carbon i Doubt they will use Sarto for OEM,,,,

Joe Bond
Joe Bond
6 years ago

Amarcord looks a lot like an FM066 Chinese open mold-isn’t Battaglin still one of Planet X’s “brands”?

VeloKitty
VeloKitty
6 years ago

> isn’t Battaglin still one of Planet X’s “brands”?

No. They are a small Italian company that makes bikes in Italy.

This is their website for their steel bikes:
http://officinabattaglin.com/

This is their website for the carbon fiber bikes:
https://www.battaglinroadbikes.com

Constantine Columbus
Constantine Columbus
3 years ago

Steven Roche won the 1987 tour de france on a Battaglin. One of the best ever TDFs.

Subscribe Now

Sign up to receive BikeRumor content direct to your inbox.

Subscribe Now

Sign up to receive BikeRumor content direct to your inbox.