Originally Posted by Kevindale

A few things to realize here. First, the 'steel era' was a very long time. As BikeRider007 noted, you're better off looking at smaller time periods within the nearly full century that bike road races were run and dominated by steel bikes (road racing started in the very late 1800s). For me, the late 1970s through the 1980s are my period of interest, partly because that's when I got my first road bike, and partly because there are so awesome bikes available, often for small $.

Second, for high-end steel frames/forks you're better off thinking about builders, rather than 'bikes' (by which I assume you mean marques or companies or shops). There are some excellent factory made, mass produced steel bikes, but the 'top bikes' were, and are, hand made. And of course anything that is hand made is going to vary somewhat from bike to bike.

Third, as noted, what kind of racing bike? Crit? Multi-stage race? TT?

Finally, are you asking because you want a fantastic bike to ride, and you'd like to know this bike is just about as good as it gets? Or are you looking for the most amazing wall-hangers, like a new art collector wanting to make sure they have a painting from great artists, regardless of how much they might like the art? If you want something super amazing and collectible, get something ridden in a famous race by a great rider, with an iron-clad provenance. It may not fit you, it may not be ridable, but it would surely be one of the great bikes.

But if you want a rider, and want a premium riding experience on a fantastic steel bike, I think you'll find this list varies from rider to rider.