We already looked at the most innovative bike from Italian custom frameshop T°Red right at the start of Eurobike with their narrow, premium steel Levriero time trial bike. But they had plenty of other new bikes packed into a small tradeshow booth with three standing out in steel, aluminum, and titanium.
Hedera Acciaio steel hardtail adventure mountain bike
We got an exclusive sneak peek at the TRed’s new Hedera semi-hardtail back in June when it was first introduced in titanium. The Hedera Acciaio is a premium steel version of the same bike which TRed sees as a more affordable option sharing all of the same tech.
It uses the same rear end configuration with oversized shaped chainstays for efficient power transfer and tiny bent & dropped seatstays for rear end flex & comfort at the saddle. The niobium steel bike sticks with Boost spacing and uses a T47 threaded bottom bracket, as well as a tapered headtube.
TRed like to think that with a 2350€ frame pricetag or 2990€ with a Reba fork, the steel 29er makes for a good option to build up as an adventure bikepacking bike, or something of a reborn monstercrosser (vs. the titanium frame at 3800€.)
One of the key elements of this 5290€ complete “Ultratrail” adventure bike that TRed built up is the Veno Borderless handlebar that we mentioned in our Euro-bites find from the first day of the show. The Japanese-made wavy carbon handle bar comes in three sizes with widths at the hoods of 36, 40 or 44mm and 4cm more by the time it flares at the drops.
With a 76mm rise to the tops & just 89mm of drop, the Borderless bar makes a good option to keep an upright off-road dropbar position without resorting to wacky frame geometry or a mega rise stem.
Manaia Nera FA aluminum special edition road crit race bike
The Manaia family of bikes are a top-level customizable road, track & crit racing family built out of a Scandium & Zirconium aluminum alloy that yields a stiff frame at a fraction of the cost of Italian custom carbon.
This newest Manaia Nera FA disc brake crit bike though takes it in a slightly different direction as a special commemorative edition as an homage to Italian cycling industry veteran Fulvio Acquati who died this past summer.
To remember him, TRed built the special all-black bike with a raised relief of their tattoo graphics. 3D printed in polymer, TRed then bonds the graphics to the alloy frame before giving it a full black-on-black paint job.
Acquati spent almost the last two decades managing Deda Elementi, with time at several other iconic names in Italian cycling before that. He built close ties with TRed, as well as pretty much anyone else who crossed his path. So, of course TRed outfits the Manaia Nera FA with a Deda finishing kit. It also becomes the first bike to feature the new Alanera integrated bar+stem that Acquati oversaw the development of.
The unique bike as it stands is available as a 8350€ complete build with a Campagnolo Super Record mechanical + H11 hydraulic disc brake groupset and deep Toot 9.1 carbon wheels. You can build one however you want starting with the 3300€ special edition frameset. Or if you are looking for something more reasonable, the standard Manaia road bike is available as a frameset from 2690€ with rim brakes or 2890€ with discs.
Aracnide Titanio titanium road race bike
We actually saw a version of the titanium Aracnide disc brake road bike first back at NAHBS in 2016. Since then TRed has introduced a new Italian custom carbon version and a superlight 5.9kg total steel Aracnide OOL as well. But the ride of a premium ti bike is still hard to beat.
The newest edition of the full Italian custom Aracnide Titanio does get some updates since we last saw it. It is now built entirely from a USA-made ti tubeset developed exclusively for TRed. Then handbuilt in Italy and made-to-measure, it gets updated to lower profile 12mm thru-axles front & rear for its disc variant with a frameset starting in price at 4800€ with blasted graphics, or about 400€ cheaper to stick with rim brakes.
