CBT Italia

“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” (son of founder Giovanni 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.” “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.”