Custom XCr build from Cicli Barco

[Mr steel]

So for the better part of 25 years all I've ridden has been used bikes, not that there is anything wrong with my SL tubed EM Motorola, SPX tubed Fondriest, or 80s De Visini in red cromovelato and any of my 3 90s Miyata mtb, NONETHELESS, I wanted to treat myself with a custom geo bike.


The choice of frame builder
For obvious reasons it had to be Italian! Initially I thought Battaglin looked nice but the more I saw their videos, read their newsletters/emails the less I wanted one, they seemed just too elitist and something didnt sit right with me...Did some more research and found Cicli Barco, somehow they seemed very low key while at the same time producing some of the most stunning bikes, both under their own name but also for other bike brands.

Reached out in February 2023. I had a quite clear picture in my mind of how I wanted the bike to look and the geo to be. Classic road bike, horizontal top tube, quill stem, rim brakes, 5 arm crankset, steel fork and no pla...carbon!

Designing the frame
After a few initial emails describing above and reciving some marketing material and price list I had a good feeling and transfered the 50% of the price so they could get started. Initially the estimate for the frame was October, just in time to get a couple of rides before Swedish winter!

After that it quickly became quite detailed. To preserve the classic looks I needed slim tubes (perks of weighing 65kg) went a bit back and forth on Columbus spirit vs XCr but settled on XCr with the following dimensions:

28.6mm seat tube
28.6mm top tube
31.7mm down tube

Fork
After that it was time for fork crown! Given that I wanted a steel fork and not their VIVA fork which is steel with a carbon steerer my choices were a bit limited. I initially wanted style 1 or 4 but these were not available for the all steel fork so settled with style 2. The VIVA fork looked veeeery nice though, however that would make it impossible to use with a quill stem so settled for an all steel one



Viva fork:



Lugs or no lugs....
This was one of the harder decisions. I really like the look of a nicely fillet brazed frame, but equally, given the classic style I was going for maybe lugs would be more suitable.

Turned out they didnt do fillet brazing since their scapin days, not sure why, didn't inquire, they reassured me that their tig welding was very good though, jumped on their Instagram, and yep, they were a thing of beauty. Given that all my other bikes have lugs I was now convinced welded was the way forward!



Have you seen our extras menu?
Turns out they had one, and I wanted almost everything on it!

Not sure why one would want this on the bb shell, I knew I wanted it though not on the BB shell but rather on the top tube, just behind the stem and bearing my newly born daughters initials, who some day, if I dont crash it, will inherit the bike



Columbus dove? Classy! This was going on the upper part of the seat tube where the tubing sticker usually is



Italian flag in the rear? How could I not?! Just look at the seat cluster from behind! Riders on their chinese made carbon bikes will tremble in equal amounts of horror and awe when I pass them on the roads

[Mr steel]

Color
I knew I wanted red/orangeish cromovelato. However since they dont offer any chromed frames/forks I was initially concerned that the end result would not be like a real cromovelato but after some more digging on their FB and instagram I was convinced otherwise and once I saw the photo above I knew that was exactly the color I was looking for. Coupled with white lettering for the logo and white cable housings. Said and done!

Components
Barco provided me with a pdf listing their offerings, little did they know that I was very ocd about specific componenets. This would be a mix of new and old!

Groupset
Since no one is seizing the the opportunity to create a polished all alloy groupset any longer I did spent a considerable amount of time looking for a NOS/NIB Campa 10s groupset. In the end I caved in and settled for the best close thing, I.e. Campagnolo centaur 11 in silver, however, there was one issue





I think some higher power felt sad for me since I had wasted so much time looking for a NOS groupset since directly after having settled for the centaur 11 groupset this thing of beauty popped up, locally, a 20 min drive away, new in box, for a mere 90 eur! Asked Cicli Barco to order the groupset for me excluding the centaur Crankset since I would be shipping my new found treasure to them!



O stem, where art thou?
In my world there is one stem that reigns supreme, namely the 3ttt Mod. 1 Record Strada (2nd version). I have it on two of my other road bikes, the chiseled top is just a thing of beuaty.



I kid you not but I spent like 3 months trying to find a NOS or a mint condition one in 80-90mm. After reading some horror stories of a few of these failing (by now they are close to 40 years old) I decided to end this pursuit and set sight for Japan, which offered the next best think, NITTO NP (pearl)




Handlebar
I needed something in 380mm width, and wanted something compact and modern, ofc in silver, and while hunting for the above Nitto I came across the Nitto M106NAS, unfortunately no one was stocking this in europe so I had to order it from Japan, fortunately customs let it slip through, however I still have an axe to grind with the customs, more on that later...


Seatpost
Just like with the stem, there is one seatpost to rule them all in terms of looks, Campagnolo record c aero! Scored this one on ebay, NOS, for 75eur. TUrns out it wasnt a record one though, oh well, it looks almost the same

[Mr steel]

Pedals
Yeep, here as well, in my mind there are one set of pedals! I did however have to commit a cardinal sin...Enter SHIMANO Dura ace PD-7810



Headset
Actually there is no clear winner here, initially we were going for a polished chris king one but on cicli barcos recommendation we settled for a campa record one, a great suggestion, not only is it beautiful but also easily servicable, just like the square campa record bottom bracket I had them order!



Handlebar tape and saddle
Here I was a bit indifferent, I have brooks leather tape and swallow or swift (cant remember lol) on a different bike but this felt a bit dated somehow. Settled for the C17 and cambium tape, both in orange!

Wheels
This was more cumbersome than I had anticipated. I just wanted a nice pair of wide alloy clinchers, polished, not too tall, with a nice pair of alloy polished hubs. Ofc no one seem to be offering this in the eu. Started looking into a custom wheel set but trying to keep some semblance of budget and spotting a lightly used pair of Campagnolo Nucleon locally (ok the hubs are black) with silver spokes I opted for these.

Tires
GP 5000 have served me well, they also come in a nice cream color!

Geometry
I actually opted for my bike fitter create the geometry. Not that I did not trust Cicli Barco on this but in my mind the end result must be better bi visiting a bike fitter, getting up on a jig and doing multiple recorded iterations to find optimal geometry vs filling out a form with 7 or so measurements which Cicli Barco requested.

Said and done, visited the guys at pain free power https://painfreepower.se/ once the geo was drawn up there were a lot of back and forth between me, pain free power and cicli barco. After 20 or so email the geometry was finalized. With that said, I probably shouldn't have, but I had to intervene and request two things, namely, if possible, shorting the head tube (tall head tubes are ugly) and making the top top completely horizontal (initial geo had some slack).

This was revision 2 I think, provided by the bike fitter


Final revision provided by Cicli Barco, it was finally time to have the frame built!



The waiting game begins
By now we are approaching July 2023 and this is were the waiting starts for real, now more conversations about tube sizes, geometry or component selection...

I collected all of the components I had been hunting down, packed them up together with the wheels and included a small gift in the form of snaps representing sweden and sent them off to their workshop in Italiy


Thiefs!
Remember that I had an axe to grind with customs? Well, packages arrived safely in Itally, however, there was one major issue. Turns out the small box of snaps (10x5cl) was missing from the components package.

From what I gather it is OK to by post ship a small amount of alcohol intended for personal consumption as a gift within the eu. The Italian customs obviously did not think so since they decided to confiscate it

[54ny77]

never heard of the brand but wow they are stunning!

[Mr steel]

First signs of life - September 2023
Came back from work and noticed I had a new email from Cicli Barco! They wanted to confirm the placement of the heart which meant I got a first glimpse of the frame! Decided to have them lower it a few cm.



Brace yourselves – Winter is coming
It is now winter in Sweden, the snow is falling heavily, its dark almost 24/7 and everyone mood is generally depressing, including mine. Then after work I noticed I had a new email from Cicli Barco and the depressing mood quickly went away! The frame, fork and headset ended up being 2350 gram!












I couldn't be happier, the frame looked absolutely stunning! It had now been sent of to their mechanic for mounting the components ( typically would have done this myself but work combined with small baby simply didn't afford me the the time).

In fact, I was so happy to finally see the finished frame that it took me a few days to realize that there was a grave error...The Cicli Barco logo/lettering on the seat and down tube I had requested to be painted white where not white!

They deeply apologized and offered me a discount on the final price or to have it sent back to the painter. I had to think long and hard about this, the exposed polished steel looked quite nice, however, I had already ordered white cable housing and wanted the white housing to match with the white logo. In the end I settled for having the logo painted white as initially planned since I feared had I not done this I would regret it later down the line.

We also had received about 20cm snow so I wouldn't be doing any cycling for the next couple of months so a few more weeks of waiting wouldn't hurt.

[Mr steel]

Turns out this was a very easy fix for their painter and a few days later this was corrected





Now it was back off to the mechanic again!

Panto? Panto!
While browsing facebook I came across a beautifully pantographed seat post and given that the bike was yet to be finalized a kindly asked Cicli Barco if they would be willing to pantograph the seat post I had sent them to achieve a similar result, they could, for 130 eur, I probably overpaid for this but I knew I wanted it!

[Mr steel]

Christmas!
2023-12-20 came how from work, noticed a new email, after 10 months, around 120 emails and countless hours spent hunting down components it was finally complete and ready to be shipped!









Note that I already replaced the ugly brooks plastic end caps with nice alloy ones from Nitto. Turns out my intially planned all italian bike ended up composing of an italian, german and japanese coalition of componenets, now why does that sound familiar...



---------------

The bike arrived a few days later and it looks even more stunning in real life, turns out no chrome is needed to achieve a cromovelato like finish

Overall Im super happy with the process and end result, Andrea at Cicli Barco was great dealing with, always quick to reply and quick to let steer me out of bad ideas I might have suggested. Cost landed at around 6k eur, expensive sure but still cheaper than some of the carbon bikes. Kinda nuts that you can get a custom geo steel frame in one of the most expensive tubeset hand built by some of the most experienced builders for cheaper than some plastic molded in china.

Let me know if you have any questions regarding the process, bike or overall experience

Now its time to wait another 3 months for spring to arrive, which is not all bad since I will probably take 3 months to decide on what bottles cages to go for, currently going back and forth between the Nitto bottle cage r or the Stainless Steel Cage from King cage.

[Gman79]

Great read and amazing bike! The TIG welding is immaculate. Here's to many miles and thanks for sharing your journey.

[gbcoupe]

Great write up!

I had not heard of the brand until recently, and yet I have possibly 3 frames from their hands. A Scapin Dyesys and 2 Scapin KS-Pro's. Beautiful workmanship and fantastic riders.

[Mr steel]

Originally Posted by Gman79

Great read and amazing bike! The TIG welding is immaculate. Here's to many miles and thanks for sharing your journey.

Yes the welding is insane and was actually the first thing i marvled when i saw the bike irl. My girl friend came in to the room when I had unpacked the biked and asked what I was staring at, asked her to quickly come over and marvel at the welding around the seat cluster, it was almost hard to see the actual welds. I think I weirded her out since she just left the room without saying anything haha...

[El Chaba]

(X) Like
(X) Approve
(X) Awesome choice of equipment.

I salute this level of obsession on outfitting your weapon.

[Gman79]

Originally Posted by Mr steel

Yes the welding is insane and was actually the first thing i marvled when i saw the bike irl. My girl friend came in to the room when I had unpacked the biked and asked what I was staring at, asked her to quickly come over and marvel at the welding around the seat cluster, it was almost hard to see the actual welds. I think I weirded her out since she just left the room without saying anything haha...

My wife would have had the same reaction.

The builder who made my custom ti frame showed me an XCr gravel frame he was welding up when I went in to pick it up. SUPER tiny welds and I was nearly sold on a second frame made from stainless as I walked out the door. Nearly

[EB]

Approved, thank you for posting all of this about your rig. All about the details with something like this.

I have that same saddle now on my Outback. They really are the best, even if they weigh a ton.

[Hilltopwalters]

Great post, fun to read, absolutely gorgeous machine! Daughter's initials on the top tube was a nice touch.

[Ttx1]

Cool build. Enjoy!