Custom steel bike builder Officina Battaglin makes a big leap into new materials with an all-new carbon & steel Roma road bike. By combining a lugged steel backbone with lightweight forged carbon tubes, the Battaglin Roma promises that classic steel feel at a lighter weight, completely made in Italy and topped off with their amazing custom cromovelato finish.
Battaglin Roma lugged steel and bonded carbon (all) road bike
With the new Roma, Officina Battaglin set out to “redefine what’s possible with steel”, blending that sweet smooth ride quality of classic lugged steel with the lighter weight benefits of contemporary carbon fiber. The idea was to replace the more vertical elements of the frame with lighter carbon, while retaining the more horizontal elements in steel to retain the steel damping character.
“Traditionally, the unmatched comfort of steel comes with a certain weight penalty, a trade-off we’ve embraced as a dedicated steel bicycle manufacturer. However, with the Roma project, we set out to redefine what’s possible with steel while staying true to the material’s roots. We’ve challenged ourselves to see how much weight we could eliminate without compromising the exceptional ride quality that only steel can offer.”
– Alex Battaglin, Officina Battaglin CEO
The end result is a mixed material frame said to be on par with titanium frame weights, but with the distinctive lively feel of a steel frame.
Steel + Carbon construction
The new Battaglin Roma frame is entirely hand-built in batches, in Marostica, Italy.
The frame starts in two halves – top & bottom – joining a Columbus GB81 steel tubeset custom-drawn for Battaglin with proprietary 3D-printed stainless steel lugs. With specially developed frame jigs in the Battaglin workshop, the frame builders braze the lugs onto either end of the toptube, and build the complete lower spine – dropouts, chainstays, bottom bracket, downtube & lower headtube lug. Battaglin mirror polishes these finished steel assemblies, then fully chrome plates them in the classic silver chrome that forms the basis of their cromovelato finish.
Then, Battaglin bonds in the full set of Italian-made ultra-high-modulus T1000 forged carbon fiber tubes to complete the Roma frame. Only once you choose the final finish, does Battaglin add the last color tint layers of paint to the finish. Lastly, topping it off with logos and a deep shiny clearcoat, while leaving the forged carbon tubes raw.
Tech details & stock geometry
- straight 1.5″ headset for fully internal cable routing with the tapered steerer full carbon fork
- wireless electronic groupsets only
- disc brake only, flat mount 140/160mm
- T47 threaded bottom bracket
- 31.6mm round seatpost
- plus, 700c x 35mm max tire clearance
- and then, 12 vibrant cromovelato colors to choose from, plus this new Rose Gold nod to Giovanni Battaglin’s Giro d’Italia win
The new Battaglin Roma road bike comes in seven stock sizes (XS 48 – XXL 60cm). It is all-road-ready with big modern tire clearance. But it’s meant to feel quick, with all-day endurance road geometry, modern long Reach and reasonably low Stack.
Battaglin Roma – Pricing, Cromovelato For You options & availability
Officina Battaglin sells the all-new carbon and steel Roma all-road bike as a frameset, through their expanding dealer network. For 5500€ they deliver a stock size Roma frame custom finished in the single cromovelato deep chrome color of your choice, plus a matching carbon fork, headset, seatpost clamp, and thru-axles. Frames are made to order, and like their other new Cromovelato For You semi-custom bikes. And Battaglin says they’ll ship your bike out in just 4 weeks.
And of course, one of Battaglin’s new global premium partner bike shops will take care of your custom build. The, they’ll turn your new Roma frame into a complete modern road bike.
