“Dear Alex:

Thank you so much for my Portofino. You and the team at Officina Battaglin did an amazing job.

I am so impressed with the Portofino and the experience I have had with you and your father, Giovanni.

From the moment you called me, 24 hours after I filled out my email inquiry, until now, I have been overwhelmed by your attention to detail and to delivering a product that was very special.

I have been riding bicycles since the late 1960s and have come to love the feel and reliability of steel-framed bicycles.

I Have ridden steel Colnago, Masi, and De Rosa bicycles from the 1970s and Bianchi, Gios, and Pinarello bicycles from the 1980s. These were lovely bicycles.

More recently I have ridden high-end carbon bicycles including Ridley, Pinarello Dogma and De Rosa Sk Pininfarina.

My experience with carbon bicycles only reinforced my desire to go back to a steel frame, but this time with modern steel tubing.

The main reason being that steel provided the road feel I so enjoyed and which suited my everyday riding.

I wanted a comfortable, but a responsive bike. Carbon was responsive but was not giving me the comfort of steel.

I realized too that steel tubing has advanced with larger, thinner wall tubing options.

When I started looking for my ultimate modern steel bicycle, I considered some other brands, namely Festka and Enigma.

I gave some thought to going with a traditional steel frame from Colnago and De Rosa as well, but decided to go with larger diameter tubing as I was going to use a modern 11 speed Campagnolo groupset with carbon wheels and felt the ride and aesthetics would be better.

During our conversation you introduced me to the design features and advantages of the Portofino.

I was sold.

I was very impressed with the idea of a steel frame with oversized tubing, but with lugged construction!

I had not encountered another frame like it as the other steel frame options I was considering were either tig welded or fillet brazed.

While fillet brazing is lovely, I leaped at the chance for a lugged steel frame as it promised the look of a retro-modern frameset with the smoothness and beauty of lugged construction.

You also offered a very competitive price for a custom frameset.

On another note, I was also excited that your father, Giovanni, would be designing the frame based on my measurements.

This was truly special as he has an impressive racing pedigree, but also many years of designing steel frames for thousands of customers, including some famous ones, like Stephen Roche.

I have now had a chance to ride the Portofino and can say it is a dream to ride.

The steel soaks up road vibrations. The oversized tubing feels very comfortable, but also ensures stiffness to support sprinting or riding out of the saddle.

While I was skeptical about the 74 degree seat angle Giovanni specified in the design, he was absolutely correct as it puts more power over the pedals and shortens the reach to the handlebars, which makes for less back strain and smoother transitions from sitting to standing in the pedals.

The geometry is perfect.

You have been very patient with me through the entire process and have given my a lot of very good advice.

It was so easy to communicate with you via WhatsApp.

You graciously went out of your way and made time, lots of time to make this bike very special in a number of ways, including sloping the top tube and making a unique name plate.

You also helped guide me to choosing a lovely grey color, grigio campovolo, for the bike.

I love the way Officina still chromes the frames and then polishes the chrome to contrast with the paint.

The result is a very beautiful frame that is expertly brazed and painted. I found no blemishes whatsoever.

The frame was shipped quickly and arrive well packaged. My mechanic had no trouble assembling the bike.

Thank you Alex, for delivering a magnificent Portofino, that is as beautiful to look at as it is to ride.

I am looking forward to many miles of comfortable and spirited riding.

My only regret is that I will not be able to live long enough to test your 1,000,000 million mile warranty!”