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Battaglin “Cromovelato For You” Delivers a Custom Finished Italian Steel Bike in Weeks

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Storied Italian steel frame builder Officina Battaglin has a new “Cromovelato For You” program designed to dramatically cut the waiting time – and prices – on their uniquely finished handmade modern steel road and gravel bikes. Now you can get their signature immaculately shiny Cromovelato finish – on either the new lugged steel Palladio road bike or new laser-welded steel Pavé gravel bike framesets in stock geometry – and in your choice of 12 tinted chrome colors. And Battaglin will ship your custom-finished bike in less than 4 weeks.

Plus, if you still need to go full custom, they’re happy to pull out all the stops. But just 99 full custom build slots will be available across all disciplines for the year. So act fast to secure your spot in the queue…

Battaglin Cromovelato For You, custom-finished Italian steel

Battaglin Cromovelato For You, custom-finished Italian steel bikes, showroom
(Photo/Cory Benson)

Why not full custom?

With a classic wide centimeter-spaced range of stock frame sizes, Battaglin realized that most of their bespoke frame customers didn’t actually need fully custom geometry. But what they really kept coming back for was that custom Cromovelato finish.

This unique multi-step finishing process involves mirror polishing raw steel frame tubes, then brazing/welding a frame, then re-polishing the complete frame, then chrome-plating the entire frame. Then, more polishing, then adding a translucent layer of tinted colored paint on top, and polishing some more. The result is a colored chrome Cromovelato finish with a shininess and depth that’s hard to understand until you see it. Then, Battaglin tops it off with handpainted logos, details, and a final clearcoat.

It’s a laborious process, but one that Battaglin has perfected over the last 4 decades.

Officina Battaglin Grand Tour custom Italian steel endurance road bike in shiny cromovelato, stages
(Photo/Cory Benson)

Now by offering the Cromovelato For You program, Battaglin can produce the stock size frames in their workshop in Marostica, Italy in small production batches. Then, finish them all to the ‘raw’ chrome stage. And then, each frame waits for the final color choice and final detail painting to suit the buyer. You get an individually custom-finished steel bike, 100% made-in-Italy. All at a lower price than full custom, and delivered in weeks, not months.

Battaglin Palladio, new Cromovelato For You steel road bike

Battaglin Palladio, new Cromovelato For You steel road bike , outside
(All other photos/Battaglin)

The fast-custom road bike is a new lugged steel Palladio model developed based on Battaglin’s Portofino R. The bike is built from a custom-drawn Columbus GB81 steel tubeset, in a mixture of lugged, fillet-brazed, and welded construction. It features cast head and seat lugs that are left in polished chrome, and a welded bottom bracket around a T47 threaded BB.

Battaglin Palladio Cromovelato For You, custom-finished Italian steel bikes,

The bike features an oversized tapered headtube with a tapered steerer Columbus full carbon fork, conventional semi-internal cable routing for mechanical or electronic groupsets, and is disc brake only with max 700c x 32mm tire clearance.

Battaglin Palladio, new Cromovelato For You steel road bike, detail

Battaglin describes the Palladio geometry as “traditional road”, with 7 stock sizes available. Framesets sell for 4000€. And buyers get to pick the Cromovelato color of their choice from Battaglin’s 12-color palette. Frame and fork are finished together in matching color, with chrome lugs, white logos, and the handpainted Italian tricolore flag.

Battaglin Pavé, new Cromovelato For You steel gravel bike

Battaglin Pavé, new Cromovelato For You steel gravel bike, outside

The gravel Pavé is also an all-new bike, although this one seems to take more inspiration from the previous generation Power+ EVO rather than the lugged Portofino G. The all-new Pavé also uses a custom-drawn Columbus GB81 steel tubeset created to Officina Battaglin’s specifications. But here it uses a new laser TIG welding process that Battaglin has refined for less heat stress on the frame tubes during construction.

Battaglin Pavé, new Cromovelato For You steel gravel bike, toptube detail

Battaglin developed the welded Pavé gravel bike to help keep prices down – it’s 25% cheaper than the Palladio. It uses a simpler finish that mixes conventional opaque paint with the multi-layer, multi-step Cromovelato.

Battaglin Pavé, new Cromovelato For You steel gravel bike, detail

The result, it buyers get to pick either a white, gray, or black body paint color, with 1 of 12 custom-tinted Cromovelato colors showing through on the toptube panel, the seatstays, and peeking through in the downtube logo. This more limited extent of Cromovelato (not at the welded joints) helps keep polishing time down, so Battaglin can lower the cost of entry.

Battaglin Pavé, new Cromovelato For You steel gravel bike, agled rear

The new Battaglin Pavé gravel bike features a straight oversized headtube with external 1.5″ headset cups that allow for fully integrated internal cable routing, mechanical or electronic, but the frame is 1x only. The disc brake only gravel bike gets a T47 threaded bottom bracket, a 30.9mm seatpost, a UDH dropout, and clearance for 700x 50mm tires. Plus, 2-position cage mount on the top of the downtube, direct-mount toptube bag, and under the downtube cage mounts.

Battaglin Pavé, new Cromovelato For You steel gravel bike

Battaglin describes the Pavé geometry as “modern gravel race”, with 6 stock sizes available. Framesets, including the color-matched curvy Deda Elementi carbon gravel bikepacking fork, sell for just 3000€. Again shipped from Battaglin’s workshop in less than 4 weeks.

Full custom, too, but only for 99 road and gravel bikes in 2024

Battaglin Portofino G custom limited edition steel gravel bike in Cromovelato pink, lugged headtube

If you really still need full customization, Officina Battaglin can and will still do that, too. But only 99 full custom geometry, full custom finish road Portofino R and gravel Portofino G bikes will be produced in 2024. The split between the two will depend entirely on custom customer demand. Typical full custom framesets sell for around 6000€, and builds usually take around 6 months.

Battaglin Portofino G custom limited edition steel gravel bike in Cromovelato pink

Act fast to get a build slot, or wait until next year.

New Battaglin Premium Partner Bike Shops

Officina Battaglin Grand Tour custom Italian steel endurance road bike, Marostica, Italy inside the workshop
(Photo/Cory Benson)

Part of the idea for the Cromovelato For You custom-finished framesets was also about making it easier to buy a Officina Battaglin bike through a local boutique bike shop. And the idea that a local shop could source your custom build kit while Battaglin built your custom or semi-custom frameset.

Battaglin Cromovelato For You, custom-finished Italian steel bikes, showroom
(Photo/Cory Benson)

Battaglin is still working on fleshing out a global network of premium partner shops. But we expect to see around 25 shops in key cities and countries around the world where you can see a custom steel Battaglin bike before you buy, whether you opt for a Cromovelato For You frameset or a full custom build. We’re curious to see a full list of Battaglin Partner Shops, and will keep our eyes peeled for them.

OfficinaBattaglin.com

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Rim Brake enjoyer
Rim Brake enjoyer
8 months ago

Very pretty bikes

HotRods
HotRods
8 months ago

Sick bikes.
for over 7k us, this is a better deal than any of the bikes from the bigS or T brand.
It might rival any other mid price bike with an electric groupset.
So amazing.

Rim Brake enjoyer
Rim Brake enjoyer
8 months ago
Reply to  HotRods

Yeah but the tawinese plastic in the funny shapes makes guys think the thing holding them back is lack of ceramic bearings and optimized aerodynamics vs their belly.

Bumscag
Bumscag
8 months ago

Finally saw one of the chromovelato road bikes in person a few days ago, and… wow! Such a cool finish. The proportions of the frame still look weird to me for a steel bike but the finish was pretty great.

Alex V
Alex V
8 months ago

There’s no such thing as “laser TIG welding”. The tungsten isn’t going to be shooting out photons…. It’s either laser welding or TIG welding. Unless they’re tacking using a laser, and then doing a second pass using TIG or something similar.

Alan
Alan
8 months ago

I’m smitten. These are amazingly gorgeous. Reminds me of the finish on my Hot Wheels growing up.

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