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A seemingly pure evolution of the up to date Portofino R street bike that was simply overhauled final December, the brand new handmade-in-Italy Portofino Gravel is the form of bike simply begging to be ridden down dust roads between olive groves and over the rolling white gravel roads of Tuscany.
Bear in mind how when Campy launched their Ekar gravel groupset, they mentioned Campagnolo had been constructing bicycle groupsets since earlier than there even had been paved roads? These pre-asphalt roads are precisely what this stunning Battaglin Portofino Gravel bike was constructed to discover…
Battaglin Portofino G lugged metal gravel bike
Let me begin off by saying that certainly one of my favourite bikes, and one of many oldest I nonetheless recurrently journey, is a lugged metal cyclocross bike {that a} buddy custom-built for me greater than 15 years in the past. Shout-out to what was Clark Customized Cycles. So now leap forward to roughly 4 years in the past after I first noticed Officina Battaglin’s trendy {custom} chrome-lugged however nonetheless rim brake Portofino metal street bike, and I believed to myself ‘that will make an exquisite gravel bike’. Nicely, now that point has come, and it’s so way more refined than that first Portofino.
Now, this isn’t meant to be some backcountry journey bikepacking gravel bike. It is a gravel bike for riders seeking to journey quick throughout any kind of street floor – asphalt, dust, gravel – however needs a motorbike with extra soul than an off-the-rack carbon bike.
What’s new in gravel?
The important thing technical element of just about any gravel bike is its tire clearance, and the Portofino G is designed to suit a max 700 x 40mm tire. That locations it squarely within the all-road to quick gravel class, simply the place Battaglin wished it whereas sustaining the eponymous workshop’s “distinct street racing DNA”.
“Whereas gravel is booming… we didn’t need a bike that resembled a drop-bar mountain bike, or a relaxed geometry for bikepacking. We wished a gravel bike with the reactive dealing with of a street bike.“
The brand new Battaglin Portofino G gravel bike is similar to the just lately up to date Portofino R Street bike, but it surely does get its personal distinctive head lugs to suit an off-road particular downtube and a straight 1.5″ headtube that permits Battaglin to construct the bike with utterly inner cable routing round a typical spherical tapered steerer full-carbon gravel fork – even with mechanical 1x Ekar shifting and the likelihood for dropper submit routing for individuals who need it.
Tech particulars
The core tech of a Portofino actually are these {custom} outsized metal lugs that Battaglin developed to work with the most recent trendy light-weight formed, multi-butted Sprit HSS-level metal tubing that they’ve {custom} drawn for them by Columbus. The lugs enable for a robust body with very gentle tubing and a “unparalleled using expertise”.
However it additionally does lock within the bike a bit extra by way of {custom} geometry. But, Battaglin maintains some flexibility and describes that gravel geo place to begin because the evolution of what the model developed for execs within the Eighties & 90s when their lugged metal bikes raced the likes of Paris-Roubaix, now having tailored it for extra trendy mixed-surface gravel using and racing.
The gravel bike additionally borrows a couple of extra bits of tech from the latest flagship street bike. That features a 31.6mm seatpost secured with the brand new hidden clamp constructed into the seatlug (additionally serving to with dropper submit compatibility), the brand new 68mm large T47 threaded backside bracket, upgraded 12mm thru-axle dropouts that incorporate the flat mount disc brake caliper and clear derailleur cable routing, and lastly dropped seatstays.
Battaglin Portofino Gravel – Pricing, choices & availability
Officina Battaglin solely builds a restricted variety of bikes of their Marostica workshop west of Venice in northern Italy every year. So, each Battaglin bike is a restricted version, and simply 70 new Portofino G gravel bikes might be made accessible in 2023, with frameset pricing beginning at 5000€.
Like all of their bikes, that will get you {custom} geometry together with a private match session with Giro-Vuelta winner Giovanni Battaglin, and the made-to-measure, individually-numbered frameset together with a painted-to-match full carbon gravel fork in your selection of colour of Battaglin’s signature high-gloss cromovelato end with a sophisticated chrome emblem fade, and a certificates of authenticity… as if anybody might duplicate this bike.
Since it is a extremely built-in design, Battaglin will largely promote the Portofino G as a whole gravel bike, with full builds within the ballpark of 800-8500€. Further parts can be color-matched in cromovelato as an upcharge, like that seatpost or customizable stem, should you really feel the necessity to go ultra-shiny.
Choices are successfully limitless – though a full Italian Campagnolo Ekar construct like it is a light-weight, high-performance no-brainer. 1x or 2x, mechanical or digital, reasonably priced or ludicrously costly wheels, actually solely your finances is the restrict. Construct occasions fluctuate, however count on no less than 4 months to get a motorbike this custom-made.
I believe it’s time that I critically contemplate getting a {custom} Italian lugged metal gravel bike.
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