The UK's All-City Cycles importer has gone all out with its take on a 'Dream Build' for the steel all-road and gravel Cosmic Stallion, which boasts a suitably stellar paint job even before the money-no-object build-up began. Shimano GRX, deep-section aero carbon rims and suspension stem and post make for a lightweight and lovely machine that should still be plenty comfortable.

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The starting point for the build was All-City's do-it-all Cosmic Stallion. It's designed to be equally at home whether it's on tarmac, fireroad or the sort of broken up combination of both that makes up a lot of the UK's minor road network.

Skinny chromoly steel tubes are made to All-City's own specs, with custom profiles and butting, plus their very own signature seat clamp and dropouts. The frame is then treated to a special corrosion protection layer before being painted in this rather lovely fade design - the pictures don't show off the sparkle quite as well as real-life, sadly. There's plenty of rack and guard mounts all over, including the carbon-fibre Colombus Futura Cross fork.

The high-end build kit is based around a mechanical Shimano GRX RX800 drivetrain but the stars of the show have to be the Redshift suspension seatpost and stem, along with the deep section Princeton CarbonWorks Grit 4540 aero rims on super lightweight Tune hubs.

Coming in at a whopping £2,800 at retail, the wheelset uses a striking profile that's rather similar to Zipp's 454 aero wheelset, where it's claimed to reduce drag and side force. These items are designed as tough gravel wheels, with a bit of extra material compared to PCW's road rims.

There's a 30mm overall width and 21mm internal, with a hole-less tyre bed and tubeless compatibility. These are shod in 45mm Schwalbe G-One Bite tyres, though you can go up to a 47mm tyre on the frame and fork or even fatter if you choose 650b wheels rather than the 700c items here.

We've reviewed the Redshift ShockStop stem on sister site road.cc and also have the matching suspension seat post in for test, but here they're fitted to add an extra bit of comfort on rough ground, even though there's a bit of a weight penalty.

• allcitycycles.com
• www.ison-distribution.com

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