AlanW
Guru
- Location
- Not to sure?
I went to the UK Handmade Bicycle Show in Bristol over the weekend, lots of stunningly beautiful bikes on show, but not quite sure why its called the UK Handmade Bicycle Show though, as most of the frame builders seemed to be from overseas?
Anyway, that aside, lots of questions were asked and lots of answers were given and a jolly good day was had by all.
So the quest has started to find a suitable UK frame builder and if merely to fly the flag for the UK industry I'm now leaning towards Reynolds 953 tubing over Ti. That said, I haven't completely dismissed Ti, but I want it made in the UK by a UK frame builder, and NOT measured up at a UK distributor and then made overseas in some sweat shop.
In truth I don't think that I am not looking for anything unusual, a simple slightly more relaxed geometry frame, with mudguard and rack eyelets but in self colour. Maybe go down the disc route at the same time, the jury is still out on that one right now? The reason for self colour is that I'm sick of getting my bike chipped and scratched at café stops, HQs etc so self colour should prove to be more durable and longer lasting over time?
Number one choice is Brian Rourke who has built a number of frames for me over the years and he was my first port of call, just waiting for a call back to discuss possible options.
In the meantime, I've just rung probably the most unhelpful "sales" person in the world at Mercian Cycles. The call went something like this:
Me: Good afternoon, I interested in discussing the purchase of a 953 Audax type frame.
Mr Helpful: What do you want to know?
Me: Well, based on the audax frame you are showing on your website, what sort of cost are we looking at to start with?
Mr Helpful: We haven't got prices right now?
Me: So no idea of any sort of ball park price at all then?
Mr Helpful: No, but should have it in about a months time if you want to call back?
Me: Oh....okay then, do you do or can you do self colour 953 frames?
Mr Helpful: No to much trouble to polish around the lugs.
Me: I see, okay then, what sort of lead time are we talking about?
Mr Helpful: 10 months at least.
A few more one word answers were given to a few more longish questions, and no offer to take my details to maybe call me back, so at which point it was clear that he wasn't really interested or particularly bothered if he sold me a frame or not, so that's them of the list straight away!
On to the next one then?
Anyway, that aside, lots of questions were asked and lots of answers were given and a jolly good day was had by all.
So the quest has started to find a suitable UK frame builder and if merely to fly the flag for the UK industry I'm now leaning towards Reynolds 953 tubing over Ti. That said, I haven't completely dismissed Ti, but I want it made in the UK by a UK frame builder, and NOT measured up at a UK distributor and then made overseas in some sweat shop.
In truth I don't think that I am not looking for anything unusual, a simple slightly more relaxed geometry frame, with mudguard and rack eyelets but in self colour. Maybe go down the disc route at the same time, the jury is still out on that one right now? The reason for self colour is that I'm sick of getting my bike chipped and scratched at café stops, HQs etc so self colour should prove to be more durable and longer lasting over time?
Number one choice is Brian Rourke who has built a number of frames for me over the years and he was my first port of call, just waiting for a call back to discuss possible options.
In the meantime, I've just rung probably the most unhelpful "sales" person in the world at Mercian Cycles. The call went something like this:
Me: Good afternoon, I interested in discussing the purchase of a 953 Audax type frame.
Mr Helpful: What do you want to know?
Me: Well, based on the audax frame you are showing on your website, what sort of cost are we looking at to start with?
Mr Helpful: We haven't got prices right now?
Me: So no idea of any sort of ball park price at all then?
Mr Helpful: No, but should have it in about a months time if you want to call back?
Me: Oh....okay then, do you do or can you do self colour 953 frames?
Mr Helpful: No to much trouble to polish around the lugs.
Me: I see, okay then, what sort of lead time are we talking about?
Mr Helpful: 10 months at least.
A few more one word answers were given to a few more longish questions, and no offer to take my details to maybe call me back, so at which point it was clear that he wasn't really interested or particularly bothered if he sold me a frame or not, so that's them of the list straight away!
On to the next one then?
