Velo City: Bicycle Culture and City Life

Zanconato Road32

Zanconato Road32

Steel, aluminum or carbon? What’s your favorite material for a frame? These days, a custom frame in any is very accessible — you needn’t feel like you have to resort to a mass produced frame by choosing the latter two. Mike Zanconato has been fabricating aluminum frames that are just as desirable as his steel frames.

Zanconato Road32

This is his Road32 model, which is available as a platform in both steel and aluminium. The common denominator is that both have clearance for up to 32C tyres, perfect for general road riding and exploring your local trails. Mike built this disc version for himself and loves how the discs make installing fenders so easy.

Mike explains: “There were a few reasons why I wanted to branch out into aluminium. The first is I really like the way the material rides. I have been using slightly slimmer tube dimensions compared to most to put a little more ‘give’ into the frame. This makes it a little more comfortable both off road and on road, especially on longer rides. But it still feels nice and resilient when you stomp on it in and out of the saddle. You can certainly do this with steel, but it ends up being slightly heavier.”

We loved the work of Gary Klein, our US-made GT Zaskars and Cannondales. Perhaps Mike is poised to reintroduce aluminum as a viable frame material for your next CX, MTB or road bike? Hit him up via the new Zanconato website, and see more fat welds on his flickr stream.

Zanconato Road32