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"The company is based in Cuneo, in the southern Italian Alps, just across the border
from Monaco/Monte Carlo. The company is owned and run by Bruno Tardivo...hence
I think the abbreviation in the name of the company means Cicli Bruno Tardivo."
"I recall the company exhibiting at the Paris Show in or about 1980, at a time
when Tardivo was in his late 30s/early 40s, although I did come across some information
that indicate that his father might have founded the firm slightly earlier."
"At that time Tardivo was importing investment-cast lugs from Brazil and using
them in his frames extensively, at a time when such components had not come into
popular use from Taiwanese manufacturers."
"Tardivo was very much an aggressive showman... and his frames always echoed his
personality, and he always managed to design and build frames that looked even more
Italian and more attractive than many other better-known Italian products. Hence his
early frames had the fluted seat-tube, and chain-stays and seat stays that were pressed
into aerodynamic diamond-shaped profiles."
"In the later 1980s and early 90s he introduced innovative sections for fork blades for
his Krypton model. He was also the first builder that I came across who offered black
chrome plating as a standard alternative to bright chrome on all models......"
"Although only a medium-sized company, CBT has managed to weather the storm, and
Tardivo has varied his offerings to keep up with market trends, hence there are scandium
-alloy CBTs out there and, more currently, monocoque carbons just like everybody else is
selling."
"His frames sell extremely well in France, which I suppose is to be expected when the
company is situated so close to the Franco-Italian border."
Norris Lockley
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Details of a
CBT-Italia bicycle auctioned on eBay
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CBT bicycle
on display at 2004 Velo
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