Production

From the heart of Northern Italy.

From the initial design concept right through to our handcrafted finish, we produce our frames completely in house. Our frame designs have been perfected through our many years of experience in the art of frame building combined with hundreds of prototypes and iterations; each step taken on the road to perfecting our production methods while ensuring that we are able to offer the very best in terms of design, aesthetics and ride quality.

Carbon Fibre.

All the carbon frames we produce have been designed by us. We make all of our carbon frames from individual frame sections that allow us to have a minimal number of pieces for rigidity and lightness while allowing us to still offer custom geometry. Our roots in carbon fibre started in 2000, as the material began to dominate the world of cycling. Key to each build is the design of the tubes and the construction of the moulds. Layup is paramount in determining the compliance characteristics of each finished frame.

Frame production starts with hand cutting the frame sections, then inserting them into the frame jig and bonding the joints. Each frame is then cured in the oven, then the joints are wrapped with resin-impregnated carbon fabric. It is then vacuum-bagged to compact the final joints and again put in the oven for final curing. Once removed from the oven, the joints are hand finished and a coat of protective resin is carefully applied. Each frame then receives a final hand finish and alignment check before painting.

Steel.

Steel is where it all started for us and it is the material with which we learnt and honed our craft. It’s a simple and pure form of building a frame. Steel has come a very long way since it was first used in frame building and we have wholeheartedly embraced the significant advancements the material has made over the years.

Using tubing sourced from the Locatelli brothers of Dedacciai, all of our steel frames are made from tube sets handpicked by the brand’s founders. We join these select tubes using the Steel TIG-welding process. From this passion and technology, our first steel frame, the first DeFer, was born.

Testing.

In a time of ever-increasing use of computers and sensors to gather information on frame performance, we continue to employ significant on-bike testing when developing our frames. With a focus on rideability, long days in the saddle can yield better information about a bike’s ride characteristics than days of lab testing. We carefully tune our frames for compliance without vagueness, and stiffness without harshness and discomfort. There is no better testing ground than the roads and gravel tracks of the Dolomite range which surrounds our Trentino home.