THE BIKES ON TEST ...

CINE LL IV I GORE LL I £1499

Cinelli’s purple and chrome Vigorelli won’t necessarily appeal to everyone but they’ll certainly see you coming on this criterium-inspired bike. The Thron steel frame and full-carbon Futura fork are both from Cinelli’s partner company Columbus, and the striking combination promises speed as well as style. This is only one of two of our steel bikes that has rim braking.

SPA CYCLES EL AN 275 £1999

The Reynolds steel Elan brings Shimano 105, hydraulic disc brakes and wheels built by Spa’s in-house spokemeister already set up in tubeless mode. Schwalbe’s G-One tyres should further ramp up the comfort and the chainset/cassette pairing provide a very impressive range of gears, both high and low. Gold details and Hope components nicely set off the predominantly black frame.

THE LIGHT BLUE DARWIN TWO WAY STREET £2054.99

The Reynolds 725 chromoly steel frame is paired with a chromoly steel fork decked out with all the mounts you could ever require. Shimano’s 105 hydraulic groupset, Genetic cockpit, Halo White Line Disc wheels and Schwalbe’s 32mm Durano tyres complete the kit line-up for what The Light Blue calls a “light, quick, steel street bike”.

GEN ES ISVOL ARE 853 £2615

The Reynolds 853 steel used on this carbon-forked beauty is the “smaller brother of the 931” and is designed to offer a similar racy performance at a fraction of the budget. It’s available in disc- and rim-braked versions and I’m testing the latter for a more classic-looking steel bike. It comes as a frameset for £899.99 and I got Shimano 105, Shimano wheels and a Pro cockpit.

ALL CITY ZIGZAG £2750

My most expensive bike has the American company All-City’s own ACE steel frame paired with a Whisky No 9 thruaxle fork. It’s the third of my contenders to feature Shimano’s seemingly all-conquering 105 hydraulic groupset. Here, it’s joined by Halo’s wide-rimmed Devaura wheels and 30mm Schwalbe Pro One tyres already set up as tubeless.