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.
