Officina Battaglin today announced its first foray into the gravel market in the form of the Portofino G, a custom steel bike with oversized lugs and a special "chromovelato" paint finish.

The Italian brand was founded by former Giro d'Italia and Vuelta a España winner Giovanni Battaglin and his son Alex. According to Alex Battaglin, the brand's CEO, the brand wanted to transfer the comfort of its road model, the Portofino R, to a gravel platform.

"One thing Portofino is famous for is its supreme ride quality," Bataglin insists.

"Rebuilding Portofino as a gravel machine and achieving this smooth ride on unforgiving roads always seemed like a natural evolution."

The Portofino G may take the Portofino R for the road as its design starting point, but it features a custom steel frame with a newly designed Columbus steel down tube and completely redesigned head tube lugs. The lugs are of course made of polished steel, and the frame is capped off with a carbon fiber fork, 68mm T47 bottom bracket, and fully integrated internal wiring.

Although the bike is new, Battaglin looked back to the custom geometry he built for pro riders tackling Paris-Roubaix in the 80s and 90s to reflect the Portofino G's geometry.

"We felt that a proper gravel version of the Portofino needed to maintain its road racing DNA.

"In the late '80s and early '90s, we developed this custom bike for professional riders for Paris-Roubaix. At the time, Paris-Roubaix was a professional competition that brought in lugged steel bikes for riding on dirt roads. Those geometries became the starting point for developing gravel-specific frame geometries."

Not surprisingly, the Portofino G is a more road-specific gravel bike, with sharper handling characteristics and 40mm tire clearance.

"We didn't want a bike that looked like a drop-bar mountain bike or a bike with a relaxed geometry for bikepacking. We wanted a gravel bike with the reactive handling of a road bike."

The Portofino G is a dedicated high-end gravel bike with a production quota of 70 units for 2023. Battaglin offers customers a wide range of custom options, and each build begins with a consultation with both Giovanni and Alex.

Fully custom steel geometry is included in every build, with a new custom paint job using polished chrome, which then fades to a Cromo Velato color. Chromovelate is a special color chrome effect, and customers can choose custom chromovelate paint on the top of the frame and on some parts. Each frame also comes with a serial numbered plate and certificate of authenticity.

Naturally, such an exclusive level of customization does not come cheap, with Portofino G framesets starting at €5,000.

For more information, see the Officina Bataglin website.