Then your personal choice in cycle technology is added. This includes push-button electronic gearing (the equivalent of the semi-automatic gearboxes now fitted to cars), carbon-fibre wheels and disc brakes. The total package weighs slightly less than five kilograms.

You can impress your friends by picking up the bike with your little finger. A joke is that the heaviest part of these bikes is the water bottle.

The road cycling scene has exploded in the past five years, replacing golf as the executive elite sport. One bike shop owner suggests that the early-morning cycle group, followed by the mandatory coffee, is where the majority of business networking is done these days. Entry into this exclusive world involves having a bicycle worthy of inclusion.

''In the cycling community there are certain bikes that have a status to them; they just perform really well,'' the managing director of the Urban Cyclist in the Sydney suburb of Rosebery, Craig Klement, says. He's referring specifically to the gold-coloured Colnago C59 Ottanta he has hanging on the wall. Its price tag is $17,000 and there are a number of semi-serious offers. Released in February this year, this bike is one of only 80 produced in the world to celebrate the 80th birthday of Ernesto Colnago, a figure who is to cycling what Enzo Ferrari is to motorsport.

Like the Parlee, the Colnago C59 is made of carbon-fibre and features electronic gearing - in this case the Campagnolo Super Record EPS group set. Only 17 have been allocated to Australia and Klement has another one on the way, made to fit the bio-mechanics of a prospective buyer.