De Rosa 2013: Carbon, titanium, steel, style… & substance

Italy’s De Rosa have some of the classiest looking bikes out there and their Eurobike stand, featuring the brand new 888 Superking, was dripping with style. 

Eurobike might have finished over a fortnight ago but the place is so vast that we still have plenty of pictures and news that we’ve not yet had the chance to share with you. We have, though, already shown you the 888 Superking (main pic), one version of which comes with the Campagnolo EPS battery hidden inside the frame. Superking still sounds like a packet of fags to us but you can't argue with those looks. Framesets are priced from £2,799.99 to £2,999.99.

The Protos is another new bike. Well, it was launched back in January and we first caught site of it at the Core Bike Show early in the year.

This is De Rosa’s top-end road race frame that’s made from three different types of high-quality carbon fibre. Featuring a tapered head tube and a press-fit bottom bracket, that frame weighs less than 800g.

Oh, there is one stumbling block: a full bike built up with a Campag Super Record EPS groupset is… cough!... 12 grand. Still, it does look incredibly pretty. That price does include an Elite De Rosa carbon bottle cage, by the way, so it’s not all bad.

The Titanio 3/2.5 is made from 3Al/2.5V titanium – the clues are all in the name. That’s the titanium alloy most often used in the bike industry.

The head tube is CNC machined and so are the dropouts. You’re looking at £2,849.99 for the frame and fork.

This one is the Team which is aluminium with a carbon-fibre fork. That’s an oversized head tube up front.

And next up we get the Corum which is made from 18MCDV6 steel. De Rosa are certainly an equal opportunities bike builder; so far we’ve had carbon, titanium, aluminium and steel. We can’t see them going with bamboo for the full set.

The Merak is another of De Rosa’s stunning-looking carbon road bikes. This version comes with a Shimano Ultegra Di2 groupset and FSA cockpit components.

The carbon King RS comes with a BB30 bottom bracket, tapered head tube, an integrated seatpost, and internal cables. That’s new 9000 Series Shimano Dura-Ace on this model.

The Scattofisso is a singlespeed built around a track bike geometry although it’s also intended for urban use. This frame is titanium and it’s also available in TIG-welded steel.

De Rosa’s Milanino bikes come in various different guises. This is the Free Pop version with a triple-butted cromo steel frame and a belt drive system rather than a chain.

The Tonica is belt drive too, with a Shimano Alfine 8-speed internal gear hub so maintenance should be minimal. It’s built around a triple-butted 6061 aluminium frame and those are Shimano’s M595 cable-operated disc brakes.

This is the Vintage model. It’s triple-butted 6061 alloy singlespeed with disc brakes and an eccentric bottom bracket.

De Rosa’s UK importer is i-ride. Go to their website for more details.