Enigma Eikon Frame 2024

The Enigma Eikon is part of the company's Signature range, which means the frame is handbuilt in Enigma's UK premises with incredible attention to detail, and custom geometry is an option – plus you can have pretty much any finish you desire. The aesthetics aren't the only focus, though, with the Eikon showcasing titanium's sublime ride quality while offering all of the stiffness required for a performance road bike.

> Buy now: Enigma Eikon frame for £3,999 from Enigma

For more metal options, check out our guide to the best titanium road bikes.

Enigma Eikon: Ride

The Eikon balances ride quality and performance in a way that only high-quality titanium alloy tubing can achieve. It's a firm bike throughout, most noticeable at the front end and around the bottom bracket area, which highlights that it's designed to be ridden hard on the road, harnessing the power being pushed through the pedals and coping with forces being put through the head tube under high steering and braking loads.

But in the same breath the ride quality softens everything. It has a smooth, vibration-muting effect to it. I've ridden loads of titanium frames over the years, and more than normal over the last 12 months or so, and they all have it, but Enigma has played a blinder here with the Eikon's tube profile and butting choice as the balance is pretty much perfect.

With custom geometry you can dictate how you want your Eikon to ride, but here we have an off-the-shelf 55cm frame which gives a racy position without being too extreme. It's compact enough to feel nimble and tight – and fast – but by not going too steep and aggressive at the front, the handling remains on the fun side of neutral.

I found it an easy bike to ride quickly – you can cover a lot of miles at speed, with fatigue only ever being an issue in terms of leg muscles rather than any upper body niggles.

I loved riding the Eikon. The huge amount of feedback through the frame and the carbon fibre fork means there is loads of involvement between bike and rider. Everything is there, all of the engagement of the surface beneath you is passed through the frameset, telling you what the tyres are up to, and it transmits all of the little details like what the wheels are doing, the chain, the seatpost, the fork legs... There's a smorgasbord of information all coming through to your contact points, but so well controlled its delivery doesn't overwhelm your senses.

All of this helps with things like descending, where I could confidently just let the bike go on steep, technical corners. The feedback lets you know how hard you can push things into the corner, and should you be a little over ambitious, you can guide yourself out of trouble before things go pear shaped.

At 8.39kg in this build it's not as light as a carbon fibre race machine, but that doesn't stop it being a good climber, its stiffness and responsiveness making up for any shortcomings on the scales front.

Overall, I think the ride is excellent. The mixture of stiffness and comfort makes it the ideal sportive machine, club run blaster and all-round general fast road bike. Perfect for those who like to go fast, but without the racing ambition.

And as it's a custom build, you can tailor the ride experience to exactly how you want it.

Who is Enigma?

According to the Heritage Crafts website, the art of bicycle frame making is now an endangered craft in the UK, something it describes as having sufficient craftspeople to transmit the craft skills to the next generation, but for which there are serious concerns about its ongoing viability. Enigma Bicycle Works is one of those few companies working to keep the tradition alive, though, creating beautifully handcrafted titanium road and gravel bike frames from its base in East Sussex.

Jim Walker founded the company back in 2006, employing renowned frame builder Mark Reilly, who went on to found Reilly Cycles in 2014 before sadly passing away in 2021.

Enigma started off importing titanium frames from the Far East, but by 2008 it was building its own steel frames in-house, before a move in 2009 to larger premises and the creation of its first handbuilt titanium frames.

Over the years the company has grown consistently and now offers two ranges. The Ready to Ride range is made in the Far East to Enigma's own material specifications and geometry and includes bikes like the Edge, the gravel bike I reviewed earlier in the year, along with road, touring and gravel machines.

The Signature range consists of four bikes and all are handbuilt in Enigma's East Sussex unit, created by a small team who cover everything from initial bike fits through to the manufacturing of the frames, including three welders who have mastered the intricacies of working with this tricky material.

As Enigma continues to grow, the plan is to move away from the Far Eastern-built frames to production being carried out completely in its UK factory.

Enigma Eikon: Frame

After discussing geometry and details, I had the chance to travel down to Enigma and watch the Eikon being created, from the initial tube selection, cutting and welding through to the various finishing processes. As I mentioned above, a bike fit is an option, but it wasn't something I needed.

The Eikon is created from custom Gr9 3Al/2.5V (3% aluminium/2.5% vanadium) titanium alloy tubing from UK-based Reynolds, which has been cold-worked and double-butted internally, as in the tubes have two different wall thicknesses along their length to tweak the ride characteristics.

The dropouts are also from Reynolds and are 3D printed…

…while the bottom bracket shell is custom machined and uses the T47 standard.

The head tube is also machined, so it's a traditional looking frame but with a modern twist.

Another modern twist is that, on this version at least, all hoses and wires are running completely internally from the handlebar, to give a very smooth look to the frame. The finish levels are all customisable, though, and you can have cable routing however you want it, or the addition of mounting points and so on.

The seat tube has an external diameter of 34.9mm which will run a 31.9mm seatpost, or you can run a 27.2mm if you use a shim, and the standard build has a Chris King Aeroset 3 headset.

Even though it's a road bike, the Eikon is still designed with decent tyre clearance of 32mm.

In terms of the finish, again you can have pretty much whatever you want. As standard you get a satin bead-blast finish with mirror-polished, anodised or brushed logos. As you can see from the photos, ours is a rather fetching gold.

Enigma also has its own paint works department, not only doing custom paint jobs on its own bikes, but anything else that a customer wants creating. The company also specialises in titanium repair regardless of brand, and full refurbishments.

It was great being able to see the frame make its way around the factory, going through the various stages, and the quality of finish is truly excellent. It is very much a handbuilt frame, and even though machines are used for running the tools, the actual processes very much use the human touch.

The welding is some of the neatest I've ever seen on a titanium frame, with each pass leaving a clean finish – there is nowhere to hide on an unpainted frame after all.

The fork is a full-carbon Enve, which suits the feel of the Eikon's frame, being stiff where it needs to be and compliant where it doesn't.

Enigma Eikon: Geometry

Looking at the geometry, it can be whatever you spec it as for your riding style and body shape, but Enigma also offers 11 sizes off the shelf. The 55cm was pretty much spot on for me, so I went with that option.

It has a 550mm top tube with a 545mm seat tube and a 145mm head tube, which gives a stack figure of 568mm and 381mm of reach. The wheelbase is 999mm, with 420mm chainstays, while the seat and head angles are 73.5 and 72.5 degrees respectively.

A 55cm frame is said to weigh in at 1,350g.

Enigma Eikon: Finishing kit

The Eikon is available as a frame, or you can order it as a complete bike built to your own spec. Ours came with a full Shimano Ultegra Di2 groupset which offers stunning performance in terms of gear shifting and braking.

The 50/34-tooth chainset suits the riding intentions of the Eikon, and when matched with the 12-speed cassette provides a wide range of gears.

You can read our full review of the groupset for an in-depth analysis.

The cockpit matches the fork, coming from Enve, with a carbon aero bar and a smart, sleek-looking stem.

The carbon seatpost comes from Enve's catalogue too.

The wheels are from Pacenti, handbuilt in the UK, from its Forza line-up. It's a beautiful set of wheels, with a ride quality similar to the Eikon's frame and fork, being stiff (laterally in this sense) while still retaining a smooth ride feel. The build quality is excellent too.

They are wrapped in a pair of Schwalbe Pro Ones, one of my favourite tyres, being supple, grippy and with minimal rolling resistance. We've reviewed many iterations over the years.

Enigma Eikon: Value

Being handmade from high-end materials, the Eikon's price isn't going to compete with those titanium frames brought in from the Far East, but at £3,999 for the frame I would say it still represents good value for money – especially with the longevity offered by titanium.

A custom geometry option adds an additional £300, and full bikes start from £7,595.

A benchmark for titanium frames in my opinion is Mason's Aspect, and this Eikon very much matches that in terms of quality and finish, though it is a little more expensive. The Aspect is handmade in Italy and costs £3,700 for the frame and carbon fibre fork.

Back in 2020 I reviewed the Moots Vamoots Disc RSL and loved it. It, too, is a very similar bike to the Eikon, using custom titanium tubing and 3D printed dropouts. Back then it was £6,500 for the frame and fork, and a look around UK retailers shows it's much the same now. Moots has since brought out the Vamoots CRD, saying that it has picked up from where the RSL left off, or there is the Vamoots 33 which continues the theme of the RSL and CRD but with larger tyre clearance of 38mm. The UK retailer has that listed at £5,800 for the frame and fork. That makes the Eikon look good value indeed in comparison.

Enigma Eikon: Conclusion

If, like me you are into your metal bikes and want something that is handmade by skilled people then the Eikon should really be near the top, if not at the top, of your list.

The finish and attention to detail is stunning, and while it is a big investment, it's one of those bikes for life kind of thing.

Aside from all of the design and custom speccing, the Eikon is stunning to ride and a real joy to be on regardless of whether you are out for a quick blast around your local lanes or on an all-dayer.

> Buy now: Enigma Eikon frame for £3,999 from Enigma

Verdict

Excellent in terms of the ride, and the handmade build quality is stunning