What is it? An aluminium frame with all-carbon fork built in about 2001 by Omega, the precursor of what is now Enigma Titanium. Back then, Omega’s Mark Reilly had yet to graduate to the hard stuff and was building in both steel and aluminium. This frame was custom made for the writer and incorporated one feature – an extended head tube –designed to overcome the problem of finding an acceptable handlebar height with a horizontal threadless handlebar stem.

The rest of the frame is entirely straightforward and typical of what was available made to measure in aluminium at the time. Tubeset is Columbus Altec 2, which came in at around 1100g for a complete frame, seat and chain stays are of substantial cross-section, welding is smoothed off and the top and down tubes have an egg-shaped profile.

With the inch-and-an-eighth all-carbon fork still a rarity in the road ‘after market’, the model chosen was Mizuno’s one-inch steerer Fiandre. Of ‘monobloc’ construction, it features blades claimed by designer Pesenti to resolve vibration right down to the eighth wave point… It is, in any case, one of the best one-inch carbon forks and well worth hunting down on the web.

The other original parts still in use are a 3T bar and Ritchey WCS stem plus anonymous seatpost and San Marco Rolls saddle: the groupset is SRAM Rival 2009 and the wheels Shimano’s Dura-Ace 7850 SL road tubeless.

How does it ride? Very nicely indeed, especially wearing a bang up to date transmission. The fork is surprisingly stiff and precise considering its thin steerer tube, while the back end gets the power down effectively enough. The only shortfall of note is torsional stiffness, which is somewhat lacking compared to a current carbon frame.

However, with the weight of the complete machine a useful 7.6kg and the steering as direct and accurate as anything, the Omega is still a delight to ride and perfectly well able to cut it in the bunch as it proved last weekend during the Hutchinson Open Tour in France. Shame about the rider…

And the point of the article? Aluminium has become the least prestigious frame material on the market; supposedly less durable and comfortable than either steel or titanium and certainly carrying less clout than carbon for competition. The Omega, however, proves that a good aluminium frame – and there are a few being made even now – can be comfortable, durable – this one has done Etapes du Tour, training camps, road races, winter training rides and more – and even impressively light compared with carbon. Don’t write aluminium off.