In a small industrial unit in a quiet Italian village, three craftsmen are behind something special. Gianni Pegoretti, Antonio Attanasio and Matt Cazzaniga are ‘Building Something with Meaning’; custom carbon and bespoke steel bikes, known as DeAnima.
LIOS are delighted to be the UK Agent for this prestigious brand, offering the full range of bespoke carbon and steel frames, all hand built by the craftsmen at DeAnima.
This week’s blog post will give you everything you need to know about DeAnima, from who they are, to what they do and all the latest information on the incredible custom carbon and bespoke steel bike frames they have to offer.
Getting to Know DeAnima
When it comes to custom carbon bike frames, Italy is a true superpower, exactly where the ever-growing brand laid down its roots. DeAnima’s workshop is based in the small Italian village of Pergine Valsugana, 10km from Trento. Gianni Pegoretti, Antonio Attanasio and Matt Cazzaniga are the three men behind the brand with an itch to do something different and go against the currents of the ‘big fish’ in the cycling world.
Gianni, Antonio and Matt saw the world they live in begin to morph into something they no longer recognised. Suddenly materials changed, with quality, pride, knowledge and ideas all going East to Asian manufacturers. They spent months trying to figure out what the point was of making moulds, when no one actually seemed interested or believed it was possible to produce carbon frames in Italy. This is when they decided to open a small workshop with the idea that people want to know who is making the frames, what the people making it believe in and what they are getting.
The DeAnima team believe that in a moment, when all of the big companies are essentially offering the same thing, they want to be able to offer something different. The DeAnima dream came about by the team having a desire to recuperate some of the traditional working methods and to keep alive the Italian tradition of frame building, but at the same time to transform it by bringing into the 21st century. Hence the reason the company has selected carbon as their new frontier and steel as a traditional option.
All steel and carbon frames from deAnima are ‘literally’ hand-made
The company’s name hints at this reasoning behind the venture, with De Anima relating to work by Aristotle. It translates as ‘On The Soul’ in which the philosopher explores the concept of the immortal soul within all living things.
“The soul is, so to speak, the first principle of living things. We seek to contemplate and know its nature and substance”
Unlike some of the big Italian brands who have opted for mass production and have lost the personal method of bike making, DeAnima want to the preserve the Italian geometry, which they see as the soul of frame building.
Co-founder Matt Cazzaniga says that “We’re a company about passion and we’re doing this because we like making bikes. We will grow and make a small brand with our own idea.”
Building Custom Carbon & Bespoke Frames
A detailed bike fit consultation beforehand provides the geometry for the frame building process
DeAnima produces its frames entirely in-house and have 6 models available; Unblended Carbon, the AMG Carbon Disc, Soul Carbon Gravel, DeFer Steel Road, DeFer Steel Road Disc and the DeFer Steel Gravel.
The Unblended is DeAnima’s first carbon model, launched in 2013 with the frame made from a tube-to-tube construction; similar to almost every custom carbon bike we hear you say. Well, DeAnima take their Italian pride very seriously and even build their own tubes, not just wrapping them together.
DeAnima Unblended - their first carbon model
To get to the frames they have today has taken the company many years and multiple designs. They state that it was not an easy task and they spent hours and hours studying and designing different variations. It’s not just all about manufacturing processes, it’s also about applying knowledge to new materials with new possibilities, whilst keeping the Italian traditions alive.
How are the custom carbon bike frames made?
The use of carbon fibre is not something you learn overnight. DeAnima started using carbon fibre at the beginning of 2000, when carbon fibre first made its entry into the world of cycling.
Made from carbon fibre fabric and joined using wrapped carbon joints, it’s very important how the layers of carbon fibre are laid up in the moulds, as the layup has a big effect on the rigidity of the structure. Here’s what DeAnima have to say about the production process of their handcrafted carbon frames:
“The production of a frame starts by mitering the tubes to the required design, inserting them into the frame jig and bonding the joints. Once the frame has been cooked in the oven, the frame is removed from the jig and the joints are then wrapped with carbon fabric impregnated with resin. The frame is then bagged, the air removed, and put in the oven to be cooked. Once removed from the oven, we then lightly sandpaper the wrapped joints and a coat of resin is applied. The frame is then sandpapered all over, checked for alignment and finishing before being painted.”
DeAnima also offer the simple and pure form of frame building, with the traditional tubes of steel and TIG welding. When Gianni, Antonio and Matt first decided to build steel frames, they knew one thing, that they did not want to do was what everyone else was doing – taking one of the very few steel tube sets still available and making a frame and ignoring the advancements that had come about since they last handled steel. They therefore decided to get in touch with some old friends and with some raw tubes and dyes on the hydraulic rams, the first steel frame, the DeFer, was born.
Custom Paint
All frames built by DeAnima are available in both standard and custom geometry and can be painted in any of the colours and designs, as shown on their website and they are all pretty mesmerising to say the least.
Paint is something that everyone takes for granted. In reality its actually one of the hardest things to achieve. Frame painting has a number of stages and the whole process can take up to two days.
DeAnima say:
“All the frames are spray painted by hand. We do not use any type of transfers, stickers or electrostatic finishing. The frames are first sanded down to the raw frame material and then a base primer is applied. Then we move on to the various colours of the graphics, applying various stencils, we finish by applying a clear gloss or matt coat. The frame graphic designs are applied using stencils that are cut in vinyl using a plotter from vector files. The stencil is then applied to the frame, paint is then sprayed onto the stencil and then removed leaving the desired design.”
DeAnima know that this is a long process and it can take them many hours to complete just one frame, but they believe that the results speak for themselves and we have to agree!
Testing
In a time with ever increasing use of computers and sensors to gather information on frame performance, DeAnima like to test their bikes in the good old-fashioned traditional way. They love to get out and actually test their bikes themselves, by throwing it down a steep descent, or running it through some scary corners and climb. They believe that “It’s time to go back to having a bike that you can ride, that is not so ultra-stiff and hard to corner, or beats you up over longer distances.”
So what?
Hopefully we have provided a little insight into DeAnima and their custom carbon / bespoke steel frame offerings. You may now be thinking, this all sounds wonderful, but how much does it cost for a ‘one of a kind’ bike?!
You’ll be surprised to hear that here at LIOS, we can offer you a ‘one-off’ bike, with bespoke geometry and custom paint for less than it would cost you for a Trek, Specialized, Scott or Giant road bike with the same specification groupset!
With frames from DeAnima and full custom builds by us by us at LIOS, you truly can…
