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TECH NEWS
Bike check: Casati’s new Espresso RS steel road bike
Casati, purveyors of stylish and custom made road bikes, has been making frames at its Monza, Italy, base since Pietro Casati started the company in 1920. It's still a family run business and the Espresso RS pictured here is its latest model. Gorgeous, isn’t it?
There’s something a bit special about an Italian made steel road bike, it’s easy to get all misty-eyed and transfixed by black and white photos of Fausto Coppi and Gino Bartali racing during the glory days of Italian cycling.
- 15 of the best steel road bikes
The Espresso RS is no romantic nod to the country’s storied past, however. It’s their take on performance steel, inspired by the growing demand for steel bikes that can provide a worthy alternative to carbon, even for those cyclists that like to race or just ride fast everywhere.
You need look no further than the popular Bespoked UK hand-built show to see the evidence of this rise of interest in steel. To create the Espresso RS, Casati has used a custom Columbus Spirit tubeset, with the requisite chunky head tube, oversized down tube and slender rear stays that you would expect to see on a modern performance focused steel road bike.
The frame is a fine demonstration of the company’s skill and attention to detail. Most notable is the seat clamp bolt concealed inside the top tube, the carbon fibre seatpost painted to match the frame, providing a seamless transition from seat tube to seatpost, and the internally routed cables - the rear brake inside the top tube and the gear cables through the down tube. Meanwhile, the bottom bracket is a traditional external threaded design.
The tubes are fillet brazed and each frame is built by hand and measured specifically for each customer. A list of options include the length of the head tube, seat tube, top tube and other geometry details, so you can tailor it to provide the sort of ride you prefer. You’re looking at an 8-12 week delivery time from tape measure to delivery, through Comtat in Portsmouth.
It’s clear the bike has been built to provide a performance-orientated ride, from the substantially sized dropouts to the oversized head tube and beefy carbon fibre fork. But it’s not all that heavy, the frame weighing a claimed 1,480g and the Casati fork is 330g.
Italian bicycle companies aren’t always known for their restraint, and Casati certainly hasn’t held back with the striking paint job on this bike. Understated it’s not, but beautiful it most certainly is.
Such Italian craftsmanship doesn’t come cheap, however, with the frameset, with the custom geometry and paint finish options remember, costing £1,999.
There’s a vocal minority that insists only an Italian groupset should be fitted to an Italian frame. We don’t agree, you can do what you like if it’s your own frame, but Casati sticks with an Italian theme, with a Campagnolo Chorus groupset, Bora 35 carbon fibre wheels, and finishing kit from Deda and Selle Italia,
More at http://casati-online.businesscatalyst.com/ and www.comtat.co.uk
David worked on the road.cc tech team from 2012-2020. Previously he was editor of Bikemagic.com and before that staff writer at RCUK. He's a seasoned cyclist of all disciplines, from road to mountain biking, touring to cyclo-cross, he only wishes he had time to ride them all. He's mildly competitive, though he'll never admit it, and is a frequent road racer but is too lazy to do really well. He currently resides in the Cotswolds, and you can now find him over on his own YouTube channel David Arthur - Just Ride Bikes.
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17 comments
Casati's frames have great design & finish.
I have a 2008 mirage ultra torque chainset, and I think, the chorus looks better. The new design is just more elegant imho.
http://kepfeltoltes.hu/160615/DSC_0037_www.kepfeltoltes.hu_.jpg
DSC_0023.JPG
Looks a quality bike, I like!
I love the look of the frame, but definitely not a fan of the paint finish, I think it might be the graphics that are the issue, they look a bit blocky and kind of almost cheap. Somehow they manage to make it look more like a BSO from a supermarket, which is a real shame. I know it's not all about what it looks like, but if you're spending that kind of money on a bike you want it to look like it's worth it.
On a side note, nice to see the use of the fortezza tricomp tyres, they always seem to be forgotten compared to other brands but they're excellent.
Italian (alloy) components look even better ona British frame...............a considerably cheaper British frame
bob jackson.jpg
That bike looks familiar.. were you in the wheelers audax two weeks ago?
Brifter, brifter, brifter, brifter, brifter, brifter, brifter, brifter, brifter
I hate dogs.
Try to dip carbon parts in chrome and see what happens........
I agree. It was incredibly difficult to find shiny silver parts for my Viscount Aerospace re-build. Wheels were the biggest challenge & I eventually settled for Mavic Open Pros built with silver spokes & hubs.
Generally I like the black anodized & carbon too, but there's a place for most tastes & styles!
I'm also with the shiny silver on a steel frame. Went for DT Swiss silver rims, can't remember which now. Fitted some 2004 (?) Ergo levers off eBay that have a lovely positive snap to their action, rather than the smooth slurrring which seems more common now. Slightly silly, I know, but I have a vision of them being hand-made by a craftsman in an old-fashioned workshop, rather than a hi-tech production line.
God damn, that's a nice looking bike. Well, as mentioned above, a nice looking frame at the least.
I'm in agreement that a polished gleam would look better than the black.
That is a beautiful frame. But why does nobody do shiny metal components anymore? This would look so much better, IMHO, with the sun gleaming off the brifters, chainset, brake calipers, rims, and possibly even the seat pin, stem and handlebars. All this black anodized and crabon may be few tens of grams lighter, but it is so dull, in both senses of the word.
The top end groupsets are mostly carbon, but Veloce and Athena are still available in silver alloy.
..although I agree about the shiny metal..
I think current Chorus is a beautiful groupset (I'm biased), either matched to a black frame, or contrasted against a lighter colour such as silver or white. However, you're right, a carbon groupset against a bright blue frame just doesn't look right. Athena is available in polished alloy, however the shifters are a castrated PowerShift version of the Chorus UltraShift ones, while the chainset uses the almost unserviceable PowerTorque standard. So, what's a polished alloy lover to do? Well, you can track down an alloy 2011 Athena crankset, which uses the UltraTorque standard - that's reasonably easy. The shifters are a bit harder - you need to take 2011 Athena or non-Revolution Chorus shifters, which are carbon-only but use UltraShift, then swap over some alloy blades and triggers from a pair of newer, alloy Athena shifters. Voila, a polished alloy groupset that's as good as the new carbon ones.
Yes, I have a problem.
Relax, you're among friends.
Thanks, that's reassuring. I'm just off to search eBay for obscure Italian bicycle components...