smith5

Is Mondonaco the last Italian company that makes handmade steel frames? I've heard that almost everything steel these days is made in Taiwan. Not that I can afford a handmade Italian frame, but I guess Im a sucker for tradition. What about Ciocc?

unbelievably

I believe you've heard wrong about steel.
Carbon on the other hand has subjective origins....

roy5000x2

I don't know about in Italy, but I know of two places within 20 minutes driving distance to me that do custom steel frames.

Grimlock

Gios

Hocam

Colnago is still doing their Master line, pretty certain that's made in Italy but haven't heard for sure.

superslomo

Pegoretti, Serotta, Independent Fabrications, Spectrum Cycles, Vanilla, Richard Sachs...

There are others if you don't want to spend quite that much money, but there a staggering number of custom builders who are all eagerly awaiting your order.

Surferbruce

Casati still makes all its frames in italy
as far i know so does Olmo, Torelli, and Ciocc

redmist

it's traditionally spelled Mondonico.

just for the record, the OP is asking about handmade Italian made frames. as others have posted, there are lot's of custom steel builders- in the usa.

pegoretti still makes custom steel frames in italy- as do some of the traditional names associated with italian cycling- colnago, de rosa- but they only make one steel frame each- for colnago, it's the master, and de rosa, the neo primato. cinelli also still make their legendary supercorsa in stage racing and in track geometry- but these also are not custom built but come sized and ready to go. guerciotti are another old name that still also hand make their frames- again, not in custom sizing.

masi is still around underneath the velodrome in milan and will custom build a frame- called milano3V here and alberto masi in europe (copyright reasons). i'm sure there are more.


here's a mondonico- one of the last handmade by antonio mondonico himself-

https://img228.imageshack.us/img228/8...utlegg4zj7.jpg

phallenthoul

De Rosa!

Brian

Check out Torelli - it's run by a cyclist from the US that visits Italy every year. Bill cares about riding.

14max

Troll...

blacksquid

Pegoretti! I couldn't help post a link to my new custom built, Italian made, steel framed bicycle. BTW, all of the components are Italian as well except for the the following:

• Tacx Tao bottle holders
• Brooks B17N Imperial saddle
• Thomson Elite seatpost
• Timbuktu saddle bag

mrt10x

Tommasini

hiromian

Exactly

Soil_Sampler

https://www.milano3v.com/specs/index.php?frame=Steel

SoreFeet

Esoteric freaks of alloy will never go away...They are in Italy and the US is having a bit of a revival.

blacksquid

I don't think that Vanilla is taking orders right now due to backlog and the wait time for a Sachs is ~5 years. Besides, they're not Italian.

jackcoke

Check out GVHbikes.com. The last time I looked there were some nice Italian steel frames. I don't know what you mean my "hand made" since I'd think everyone uses jigs.

Shayne

Casati makes a nice steel frame, they'll do it with custom geometry at no extra charge. Our Team manager just got one, super nice. I just built up my custom Casati a few weeks ago, took a few months to come in, but it was worth the wait. The craftsmanship is way up there. Mine is alum. btw.

smith5

A stunning bike. Wish I could ride it! Yes indeed, I was asking about Italian frames, it was more a question about Italian race bike history and what companies are keeping the steel artisan traditions alive, than it was about which American companies are ready for me to buy their bikes. Can't afford one anyway...

rufus

He's asking about "handmade", that is, by a small builder and not coming off an assembly line. Any of the bigger name brands, like Tommasini, Colnago, etc., aren't going to meet that requirement. Pegoretti would meet that standard, and probably Milano, but I doubt few others will.

In fact, Mondonicos today might not as well. Antonio has retired and though the frames that bear his name are still being made under license, I believe by the Billato brothers, if they still are made by hand, it's most likely the case that it's several pairs of hands on an assembly line, just like everyone else.

GernBlanston

https://www.ridetommasini.com/frames/sintesi.html

Handmade? Maybe not, but it's certainly beautiful and rich with Italian frame-building tradition and a great ride to boot. I've logged about 8,000 miles on mine. When it's clean, I get a lot of compliments.

GB

ETA: This from the Tommasini website: "Each one of Irio Tommasini's frames is UNIQUE because every frame is totally handmade, here in our factory, with the maximum attention to detail, according to the finest in Italian craftsmanship and tradition."

rufus

Like I said, it's possible that a lot of these classic Italian frames are still made by hand, but I'm sure it's off an assembly line, with five, ten, or even more people having a hand in building the frame. While it's still technically handmade, the appeal for me getting a Mondonico was that I knew that the man who brazed the tubes together in his little garage shop was the man whose name was on the downtube.

Now I know that his son Mauro did some work on it too, and different guys did the chroming and the paint, but this smaller production, low-tech approach to building the frame appealed to me.

Kinda like buying a Sachs.

But with most of the bigger volume manufactureres, you don't really know for certain if it is handmade, or how much work might be done by machines. Or even if it was built in Italy, or imported from Taiwan.

acorn_user

I think with Italian carbon frames, that is a legitimate worry, and maybe also with some of the cheaper alloy frames. But most Italian companies that offer steel make them themselves or outsource to a local facility (this has been going on for years). There are still a bunch of small artisan shops or small production shops in Italy. Simoncini and Vetta have pretty low prices and seem to do nice work. But I really want a Zullo or Carrera.

Hocam

Any lugged frame is hand made; as far as I know machines cannot braze lugs. Jigs are used in any frame and do not disqualify it from being handmade.

Who made it and where is another question.