Officine Mattio Lemma 2.0 £10,200 | 7.3kg

David Bradford tests a lesser-known Italian dream machine

Being CW’s fitness editor, rather than a tech writer, I don’t often get the chance to pick and choose among the crème de la crème of bicycles. The parcels that arrive for me tend to contain nutritional powders or massage balls rather than high-modulus carbon. This has rarely reduced me to tears, but it leaves me curious: what would it be like to ride one of those astonishingly (to me) unaffordable bikes targeted at those lucky tech journalists and even luckier few who have five-figure bike budgets?

So when an email arrived from Offline Mattio (OM) detailing the brand’s latest top-of-the-range models, I sensed my chance had come. Possibly as a remnant from my motorcycling days, I have a thing for boutique Italian brands – those offering not just something special but something exclusive. Few UK riders have heard of OM, it being a relatively new niche brand, which added to its appeal. If I was going to have the privilege to test a top-spec bike, I didn’t want a flashy me-too product off a Far East conveyor belt; I wanted a lovingly crafted, rarefied bike that only those in the know would appreciate.

You can customise your own frame geometry for an additional €550. Since the Lemma’s frame is not a monocoque made with a mould, each tube is individually cut and mitred according to body measurements, and then ‘wrapped’ together with the others.