Racer Rosa custom carbon £4,700 | (frameset) 7.5kg

What if you want a brand-new, high-quality, lightweight, modern carbon frame but you prefer rim brakes, a mechanical groupset and you don’t need clearance for balloon tyres to ride ‘all road’?

Call me old, set in my ways and even grumpy, but as I see it the bike industry’s efforts over the last decade or so to fix things that ain’t broke means less choice – and more expense – for the consumer.

However, if you know where to look, it’s still possible to incorporate those ‘retro’ elements into a cutting-edge road bike. Not only that, but for around the same price as those flagship disc-brake/electronic groupset-only frames from the big brands, you can get it made to measure and built by