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
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.
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
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.
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 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
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 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.
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.
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 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
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.
Act fast to get a build slot, or wait until next year.
New Battaglin Premium Partner Bike Shops
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 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.
