Who should build my new frame?

[531colin]

You can pick your own;
frame angles
fork offset
chainstay length
front centres
tube diameter/wall thickness/butting profile
top tube length/slope
head tube length
etc. etc.

All very useful if you actually know what you want.

Shall I change my sign-off to "take a test ride, take a test ride, take a test ride".........?

[pete75]

JohnW wrote:- Don't worry about this dodger. The good Lord says nothing in the scriptures about bike frame material - He'll be happy with whatever you decide.

I think God preferes motorcyles as it say somewhere in Deuteronamy(i forget chapter and verse its been along time) "and the sound of Moses' Triumph could be heard throughout Israel"

No he preferred cars. The Bible says "Moses came down from the mountain in his Triumph" not on his Triumph. And doesn't the Bible often use phrases like Herald of the Lord?

[hamish]

Colin is right. You can ask for whatever you want but if you insist on something odd, untried or unsuitable, your custom frame will be worse than a well tried off the peg bike that has been developed over time to be good at what is was designed for.

If you test a load of bikes and find one you like, then you can use it as the basis for your custom frame. Small changes can however result in a different ride/feel. You do have to know what you like though.

My problem is that I change my mind about what I like and I always want my bike to be good for too many kinds of riding

[ukdodger]

Bling aside (i.e. paint, braze-ons and the like), just how custom is a custom built frame? Once you've chosen the type of bike (let's assume a tourer on this forum) then you get a frame with a given geometry. That means that the relative size of all the tubes are fixed and all you get to choose is the size. On top of that, don't all the tubes come in "standard" lengths? So your choice is basically a frame in a given style of given size. If you have short legs, you get a smaller frame; if you have short arms, you raise the handlebars (which aren't part of the frame anyway).

It seems to me that everything custom about a hand-built frame is to do with what goes on the frame rather than the frame itself.

Have I missed something fundamental?

Tubes are cut to the length required, angles are altered to suit the arm length and height of the rider. Forks blades are bent to increase/decrease trail, Chainstay & Seatstay bridges are placed to take account of tyre size and mudguard use, Likewise the gap underneath the fork crown. Each can be a rider specification and in the case of racing cyclists importent in getting that extra few MPH. Having said that I have a sneaking suspicion that pro builders have frames already part made and then alter them to suit a rider much like the way tailors used to (or still do) with new suits. Quite honestly how many of us could tell the difference between a frame custom made for us and one near to it bought off the peg. There's a lot of the Kings New clothes about custom frames.

[TwoWheelsGood]

My personal preference for steel frames is MnMo tubing, lugged and low temperature brazed, which is how my Roberts was built. I can't be alone, either, because (having dropped them some years ago) Reynolds have quiety reintroduced various MnMo tubesets into their catalogue, and there is still a good selection of lugs available, albeit at somewhat greater cost than when they were a fully commoditised product.

I read somewhere that 631 steel (and by definition 853 as well) contains manganese as well as chromium and molybendium plus two other elements, though the exact proportions used are presumably a trade secret. A 725 frame apparently weighs about a pound less than the equivalent 525/531 frame, but does anyone know how 631 would approximately compare to 525/725 weight-wise - somewhere in the middle presumably, but closer to 525 or 725?

To pay respect to the original post - I'm more than happy with my Mercian, and would recommend to anyone, but don't forget Chris Marshall in Keighley. He has built frames and resprayed for several local cyclists - including myself - and his paint job is like jewellery. I'm looking at his 2009 respray of my 1979 Pennine now, as I type, and I have to tell you that I stood it on the sideboard for a year before I dared build it up - for fear of scuffing/chipping/spoiling it.

I phoned Chris a few months ago and he told me that he's now concentrating more on repairs and renovations, although he's still willing to build a frame if anyone wants one.

If you like fancy lug work or fillet brazing; http://www.flickr.com/photos/woodrup_cycles/

Someone obviously has a lot of money: 953 tubing, fancy stainless lugs and S&S couplings!

Unless there are special requirements, if I was in the market for a new custom frame I would aim for at least 631 tubing for the sole reason that you can buy a very decent secondhand 531 frame and have it resprayed in the colour of your choice for less than £200.

[reohn2]

Well then someone must have pinched his bike because Moses never made it into the Promised Land

No but he was approved,for a while at least

-and anyway, in those days, it would have been an early Triumph, and Triumph were building cycles long before they branched off into motorbikes.

So he must have been test riding n motorbike

Of course the Lord is good - and of course he'll be cycling friendly - what mode of transport damages His creation less?

Authorised Version, Psalms 147v10 "the Lord does not find pleasure in men's legs" I well remember a friend and I almost wetting ourselves in a sung Evensong service once .

[Brucey]

On top of that, don't all the tubes come in "standard" lengths?

yes. And then they are cut to custom lengths to make frames with. The 'standard lengths' turn into a problem if you are making very tiny or very large frames, but within limits they can be any length you want, any length that is necessary.

It seems to me that everything custom about a hand-built frame is to do with what goes on the frame rather than the frame itself.

Have I missed something fundamental?

Well it can be a case of ornament alone, but it needn't be, and if you go to a good builder with a non-standard requirement, it won't be.

cheers