We went to NAHBS 2018 to show off our Blacksmith Cycle bikes, but also with another primary mission – to help fully launch DeAnima Cicli in the U.S. and Canada.
Proudly, representing Toronto, Canada, we returned home with three prestigious Show Awards:
2nd Place in the Campagnolo Contest for the DeAnima DeFer Steel road bike
Winner of the Steve Hed Humanitarian Award for Gianni Pegoretti's personal efforts, and
Third place in the NAHBS Presentation Award, for overall brand recognition, display, and execution
For media coverage coming out of NAHBS, please see the fantastic photos and descriptions from some of the world's leading cycling journalists:
BikeRumor - DeAnima Shows What the Other Pegoretti Brings...
CyclingTips - NAHBS Custom Bikes from the Veterans
BikeRadar - The Weird and Wonderful Bikes of NAHBS 2018
VeloNews - Personalities of NAHBS - Gianni Pegoretti
For our individual DeAnima model pages, click HERE.
We are excited to join forces with this rising Italian designer and builder of road and gravel hits, so reach out to us anytime at northamerica@deanima.it or contact us through the usual means for more info, and keep reading for all the brand details.
The Origin Story:
After years of working together, Gianni Pegoretti parted ways with his brother Dario in 2005, and began running a frame-building workshop in his home-town of Trento, Italy. His students? Troubled youth, even some recovering drug addicts, but mostly kids who were just bored and getting into trouble. Gianni would say he learned just as much about teaching as he did about building frames, and this small workshop under the guise of San Patrignano, designed as nothing more than a charity exercise, would end up building for venerable Italian “producers” such as Olmo, Fondriest, and Carrera, mostly in aluminum, then adding carbon rear seat and chain-stays.
Gianni could see the end of aluminum coming, and wasted no time. He began working with the University of Trento on the development of full custom carbon tubesets, one of the first in Italy to do so. As such, his workshop began building custom carbon framesets for a number of major brands, and even raced by a number of Pro Tour starts, part of a quiet new renaissance of Italian frame-building history that could finally take shape. When Gianni finally left San Patrignano, he realized that carbon custom bike building now had a major audience, and from there, DeAnima was born, teaming Gianni with star pupil Antonio Attanasio, along with Pegoretti's former UK importer Matt Cazzaniga, to create this unique bespoke brand.
We are extremely proud to be the first Canadian dealer for DeAnima Cicli, producers of hand-built carbon and steel bicycles in northern Italy, with exquisite style and surprising value. Blacksmith Cycle is DeAnima's new home for consumers, dealers, and media in North America.
Head to their website http://deanima.it/eng/index.php?lang=eng for lots of details, including videos of frames in production.
If we were to sum up DeAnima by touting their essential attributes, we'd be obliged to note these basic characteristics:
Paint - style and intricacy with no added cost
Combining seven jaw-dropping paint schemes imaginable, with 18 individual colors to choose from, the "stock" paint program blows away even custom paint options from most bike brands, all with NO additional charge. Plus, all paint work is done in-house, meaning lots of customization opportunities, incredibly fast lead times, and all painted by-hand with no use of decals!!
Their "base" one-color schemes are amazing – simple, bold, and clean, with carbon bikes featuring a stunning peek-a-boo area to show off the 3k-weave of the material below – and also available in raw carbon as well with a choice of logo colors, of course.
But it is the 6 “Art Series” paint jobs – again at no extra cost – that really blow the roof off. They are: M.R. / Jean / Jackson / Bice / Smith / Carpet - they are all the stuff dreams are made of, and at pricing that basically destroys most other custom carbon and steel builder for intricacy and quality such as this. The only up-charges are $200+ for custom paint color-mixing requests, or $500+ for one-off custom paint designs not found in the collection. Keep reading for photos of our Art Series options, or click here for our prototype custom paint configurator.
Here are the 6 Art Series Paint Schemes...
And the 18 stock color options:
Technological Details - customizable carbon and steel
On both the carbon and steel side of things, there is huge variance to what comes out of Italy these days, not to mention Taiwan. We believe strongly at Blacksmith Cycle in the value of made-in-Europe or made-in-North-America frame-building from a perspective of quality, technology, and sustainability on a number of levels. But even in those locales, builders use a wide variety of materials, techniques, and finishes to complete their bicycles. And this is where DeAnima begins to shine even brighter than their paint would even suggest.
Carbon: Some small and even larger custom Italian builders simply assemble tubes brought in from Taiwan, and then out-source their paint. On the steel spectrum, many builders use stock Columbus tubing (not that there's anything wrong with that) and again get their bikes painted elsewhere. DeAnima offers so much more, regardless of material chosen...
Carbon: Gianni has continued to work with top Italian carbon engineers and producers to this day. This manifests itself in three major ways: First, each DeAnima features a carbon tube-set designed specifically for that bike, never to be shared with any other brand. That means no stock (and thus over-used) stays, or generic head-tubes, but tubes designed with analysis and produced in Italy by the finest carbon supplier in the country, complete with their own autoclave and state of the art equipment. This means DeAnima can build 850-gram frames that lack nothing in stiffness and ride quality compared to even the biggest brands. Simply put, Gianni knows his carbon, a pioneer of the use of the material for custom bikes, and delivers in a major way, with each model – the AMG-01 road disc, the Unblended road, or the Soul All-road/Gravel – coming with its own carbon tubeset designed specifically for the use intended.
Second, many builders use tube-to-tube designs, somewhat like steel bikes are built, mitering each tube and then wrapping, gluing or “bonding” them together. What againsets DeAnima apart is the use of modular construction, meaning adjascent sections of the frame actually come pre-formed together – for example the bottom-bracket and chainstay unit – ensuring maximum stiffness and minimal weight, while still being FULLY customizable for geometry each and every time
Third, each and every carbon frame is hand-assembled by Antoni and Gianni in their Trento workshop. This means that DeAnima does not charge any additional fees for custom geometry, though their stock geometries are indeed a wonderful place to begin for many customers. Furthermore the delays often associated with outsourcing carbon production and paint are essentially non-existent, with even intricate designs being completed in 12 weeks or less
Steel: DeAnima works closely with Dedacciai Strada in Italy, and this has lead to some exciting developments. The tubing used in the DeFer lineup is not only extremely oversized, often mistaken for carbon, but it also features a custom Deda chainstay and seatstay designed to integrated into the custom stainless steel hooded drop-outs designed by Gianni specifically for his steel work-horse. Featuring a 44 mm headtube, tapered fork, external wing-style (and internal electric) cabling, clearance for 30 mm tires upon request, stamped “DeAnima” BSA (threaded) bottom bracket, AND custom geometry and paint included, the DeFer is meant to be the absoloutely-no-compromise steel race bike for the modern age.
Value - unprecedented pricing from an Italian icon
Most producers of custom carbon start around the $5000 USD price mark and many go much higher, and while some of those hand-made jewels may be justified in their pricing (which is why we sell a few of them), made-in-Taiwan monocoques sold at anywhere close to this price-point tend to make the Blacksmith crew very weary. Custom simply allows for so much more, from geometry, to handling, and of course style. But the pricing that DeAnima offers, along with the fact that custom geometry and paint choices are not an upgrade to the pricing structure for any model, make these bikes such an win-win for both dealers and consumers.
The carbon range starts at $3990 US for the UnBlended carbon, rising to $4100 for the strikingly similar Soul all-road/gravel disc, and $4400 for the new AMG-01 with is mono-stay rear end design. All sit at the lower end for custom carbon bikes, and all sit around 850-950 grams depending on spec options, seat-post size chosen, geometry, and even final paint decisions. The only other added charges are $250 USD for shipping from Italy, including all delivery and customs fees.
The steel range right now begins with the DeFer, our no-holds-barred steel dream bike, at $3450 US for frame, fork, and seat collar, with optional Chris King headset for $165. The DeFer disc is $3550 and includes upgrades to 12-mm front and rear thru-axles, flat-mount disc brakes, and clearance for either 30 mm, or 38mm tires, depending on fork chosen and geometry design. All models include custom geometry and choice of any paint scheme, “Art Series” designs included. Stay tuned for details on a new entry-level road model coming in later 2018 as well as the possibility of some new paint schemes launching soon!
The 2018 DeAnima Catalogue in Words
Philosophy:
In a moment when all the big brands are offering similar products we believe that offering something else as an alternative is consistent with our background. Consistency in trying to keep the Italian tradition of “made to measure” frames, consistent in making everything in-house, consistent with the desire to recover and make use of classic working methods while adapting them to new technologies.
The Models:
AMG-01 Road Disc / $4,400 USD
We decided on a set of tubes specifically for disc brakes using the flat mount standard. For the layup of the tubes we use mixture of Toray T800 3k and T800 UD. Rear Thru Axle 142 mm x 12 mm. Front Thru Axle 100mm x 12 mm. Integrated Headset – 1 1/2” bottom, 1 1/8” top. Seat tube 31.7 mm with 27.2 mm seat tube. Integrated front derailleur mount. Internal cable routing mechanical or electronic.
DeFer Strada (steel road) / $3,450 USD
The front triangle uses round butted tubes with a 31.7 mm seat tube, 35 mm top tube, 44 mm down tube and 46 mm head tube. The rear custom triangle uses chain stays that are rectangular at the drop out and round at the bottom bracket. The dropouts are CNC machined from blocks of stainless steel to our design. The cable routing is inter-changeable with mechanical external and electronic internal. Seatpost diameter 27.2 mm. Clamp-on front derailleur mount.
DeFer Gravel (steel disc) / $3,550 USD (road model shown here)
This is a Gravel version of the DeFer Strada, with flat mount discs. It uses the same front triangle as the DeFer Strada. The front triangle uses round butted tubes with a 31.7 mm seat tube, 35 mm top tube, 44 mm down tube and a 46 mm head tube. The rear custom triangle uses dropouts CNC machined from blocks of stainless steel for thru axle 142 mm x 12 mm. The cable routing is inter changeable with mechanical external and electronic internal. Seatpost diameter 27.2 mm. Clamp-on front derailleur mount.
UnBlended Road / $3,990 USD
This is our work horse. The design of all the moulds was done by us. We use a sandwich of Toray T800 3k plain and T800 UD. For the joint wrapping we use Toray T700 HM 3K prepreg. Integrated Headset – 1 1/2” bottom, 1 1/8” top. Seat tube 35mm with 31.6mm seat tube (or now choice of 27.2 as well). Internal cable routing for mechanical or electronic.
Soul Gravel Disc / $4,100 USD
Our newest model, a capable gravel, CX, all-roads monster. The design of the front triangle comes from the UnBlended, with a new rear end to maximize tire clearance and compliance. We use a sandwich of Toray T800 3k plain and T800 UD. For the joint wrapping we use Toray T700 HM 3K prepreg. Integrated Headset – 1 1/2” bottom, 1 1/8” top. Seat tube 35mm with 31.6mm seat tube (or now choice of 27.2 as well). Internal cable routing for mechanical or electronic.
Cyclist UK DeAnima factory visit:
DeAnima Stock Geometries (though custom is always available with no charge):
UnBlended / AMG-01
DeFer Strada
Soul Gravel
Thanks to Gianni, Matt (and Antonio) for the incredible bikes and making our NAHBS 2018 debut a resounding success!
As usual, thanks to Lifeisabeautifuldetail for all the model photography shot on the floor at NAHBS 2018, to his able assitant Eryn Stott for his Herculean efforts, and to NAHBS official photographer Brad Quartuccio for his Soul Gravel bike photos from the NAHBS People's Choice Award.
Blacksmith Cycle, will serve as both dealer and overall North American contact for the hand-built Italian producer of artful carbon and steel bicycles, helping with customer designs, and also assisting our growing dealer network in Canada and the USA, as well as serving as primary media contact.
If you are a consumer, or a dealer, speak to us today about this incredible Italian frame builder or email northamerica@deanima.it to start the process on your own carbon or steel dream machine.
