As cars become ever more homogenous, cyclists have taken it upon themselves to fill our streets with colour. Stop at any junction and you'll see a two-wheeled cavalcade, from moustached tweedy types on butcher bikes and Lycra loons on carbon racers to dreadlocked urban warriors on skip-find frames covered in stickers. Here are seven very different bikes for the budding hipster. They're all high-quality with an emphasis on design, because that's the way we roll…
AVENUE MADISON, £995 Fans of Nordic Noir might think all things Scandi are gloomy and murderous, but there's nothing morbid about Denmark's life-affirming Avenue bikes. Designed by Flemming Rasmussen and built by the world's oldest family-owned bike company, the Avenue is the Bang & Olufsen of the bicycle world (avenuebicycles.co.uk)
STATE SAMURAI, £339 Eye-catching, urban and idiosyncratic, these smooth-riding fixies and single speeds come in six colour-clashing shades with a choice of three handlebar styles (bullhorns, risers or drops). They're almost unique as each model is "retired" after three months – and when they're gone, they're gone (statebicycle.co.uk)
FAIRDALE, £398 The Swansea-based Urban Cyclery is a rider-owned-and-run bike shop. It stocks enough "indie" bicycle brands to have you stroking your "ironic" facial hair. One bestseller is the old-school Fairdale Coaster: sturdy, durable and comfortable with confidence-inspiring fat tyres to eat those potholes (urbancyclery.co.uk)
GAZELLE TOER, £475 No one knows urban bikes like the Dutch. This one is a classic: upright and graceful in a suitably off-key colour. The Gazelle is a wonderfully reliable town companion. Complete with mudguards, gears, lights, locks, and enclosed chain, the Gazelle is sensible and yet somehow sexy at the same time (there-cyclingshop.co.uk)
TOKYO CS, £580 The Tokyo does for city bikes what mountain bikes did for off-roaders: it puts function over form. The bikes are light, agile, comfortable and uncluttered, with an emphasis on comfort rather than speed. Sit on the moulded saddle and a Zen-like calm washes over you – perfect for frantic urban living (tokyobike.co.uk)
ROBERTS, £1,295 Take your design as seriously as your cycling and you'll be thinking "bespoke". Britain's blessed with dozens of outfits who will handbuild you the bike of your dreams. A good place to start is Roberts of Croydon where Chas Roberts, the proprietor, will create you a timeless beauty. Expensive, but it'll last a lifetime (robertscycles.com)
SECONDHAND, £25 Recycled, vintage and a bargain… the true hipster would never buy a new bike. From a rusty number dragged from the shed and lovingly revived to an eBay steal, look out for shoppers from the 60s, steel-framed racers from the 70s and born-again Raleighs from the 80s. It's the quickest way to a cycling heritage.
Email Martin at martin.love@observer.co.uk or visit guardian.co.uk/profile/martinlove for all his reviews in one place
