Pastey Frames is a new microbrand on the block, joining the likes of On-One and Cotic in the pursuit of hardtail steel loveliness at a reasonable price. Pastey is the brainchild of structural engineers Andrew Cornett and Stephen Melville, so you can be pretty sure that the frames’ll hold together…

Freshly arrived at Bikemagic Global HQ is Pastey’s first offering, the Howler. As microbrand tradition (and commercial good sense) dictates, it’s designed in the UK and manufactured in the Far East. Like Cotic’s Soul, the Howler uses Reynolds 853 main tubes and a double-butted chromoly rear. The Howler is pretty much free of gimmicks, being of traditional 71/73 geometry but in a contemporary style – it’s designed for 100mm travel forks and has a disc mount.

It certainly oozes Britishness, not just from design features like the forward-facing seat clamp slot, Crud Catcher bosses and generous clearances but also from the pillar box red paint job and of course the spacehopper on the head tube.

Howler frames are available now, priced at £350. There’s also a UK-built, full custom Howler Plus if you’re a sufficiently odd shape to need something other than that offered by the standard sizes. As soon as we’ve got enough bits together we’ll build this one up for a thrashing – in the meantime, more details can be had from www.pastey.com