Look, there’s a couple of bikes that were on the bench and narrowly missed out but that’s how tight it’s getting with the really good bikes at least. Take a frame and all the aspects it can be judged on. You have such things as the finish and engineering quality, weight, sizing, geometry, value, suspension design, silence, flex/stiffness balance all to consider plus of course that hugely important matter of pace. Is it a fast bike? Well, is it? These are. One of the most common misconceptions is that bikes are all pretty close. How wrong. And its not just on the business of performance. A range of wheel sizes, a mix of disciplines but more importantly that crazy wide range of prices means that you can get a similar specification bike at a wildy different range of prices. The eagle eyed might just notice roughly a 50/50 mix in the bike brands US vs Euro. This wasn’t deliberate, that’s simply how it panned out. That Europe is now facing America head on is an intriguing, yet scary business to watch. Ultimately it looks set to mean more affordable bikes for riders. Here’s the gold….