MUSTARD GRAVEL
£5600 › Made in Brighton from Reynolds stainless steel
BRIGHTON MAY BE known for many things – Britain’s first nudist beach, England’s only Green Party MP – but it’s less famed as a beacon of bespoke bike manufacturing. Until now…
Prestige Cycles was founded in Hove in 2011, it launched Mustard the following year and it’s planning to expand the brand this spring. Its Gravel frame is designed in-house and silver-brazed in Reynolds 953 stainless steel by Mark Reilly – of Enigma and Reilly Cycleworks fame – in Brighton. The 44mm diameter head-tube comes from Paragon Machine works, the bottom bracket is an old-school threaded model while Brighton’s D’Lucks Custom Paint is responsible for the paintwork. The Gravel frame is paired with a TRP carbon fork
The frame costs £1999, with Reynolds 853 frames starting at £899. All frames are custom made to order and can be lugged or fillet-brazed, and there are various head-tube, dropout and bottom bracket options available. And while Mustard makes its steel frames at home in Blighty, it also constructs titanium frames in Italy.
The Gravel is designed as a go-anywhere bike for maximum versatility, to cover ground quickly whatever the surface you happen to be on, tarmac or otherwise. There are slim seatstays for comfort, plenty of room for fitting large diameter tyres and it comes with front and rear thru-axles, for accurate disc brake rotor alignment and controlled braking.
As befits a bike costing £5600 it comes with a clutch of top-notch components. The wheels feature Stan’s No Tubes disc-specific Grail rims, Sapim CX-Ray spokes and very classy-looking Chris King hubs [1]. Thomson supplies some high-end cockpit goodness in the form of its stem, seatpost and carbon handlebar. The Mustard’s off-road capabilities are catered for by Schwalbe’s excellent 38mm G-One tubeless tyres, and the SRAM Force drivetrain [2] – in its 1x, single chainring guise. SRAM’s CX1 hydraulic disc brakes [1] take care of stopping duties.
As a unique final touch, the saddle may have started life as a standard Fizik Aliante, but it has been re-covered and handstitched with a custom ‘Day of the Dead’ design [3].