Well with the explosion of composites in bicycle manufacture I begin to wonder if steel/aluminum/ti bike welding will become a lost art? Is the current love affair with cf a passing fad or hear to stay?
I wonder if we will see some failures from some the new entrants into the marketplace. Seems like there must be a pretty steep learning curve for cf fabrication but perhaps if all the cf bikes are really made in one of about 5 Taiwanese or Chinese factories it won’t matter?
If there is a United Bike Welding Workers union, then they will always be around, and in the end will go on strike, rendering the crippling blow that will destroy the cycling industry with raised health care costs and industry wide bankruptcys, and finally bring the Segway into the mainstream.
A sad sad day it shall be!
-bcreager
Here to stay…
Just a matter of time before folks start going backwards.
Local guru, amazing work.
http://www.bobbrowncycles.com/
Dave is perhaps the best is the biz…ask him about snowboarding and you’ll get a discount!
well said, LC.
Are there custom builders who will build for the - shall we say - budget-minded customer?
I mean, I would LOVE to have a custom bike. So much so that I’m thinking of taking a welding class and doing it myself…
But the truth is, I’m broke, and likely will be for a while (not forever, though!). It’s a stretch to lay down $1K for a bike…
Are there custom builders who will do a “no frills” custom-dimensioned frame for a relatively low price? I don’t expect them to come close to the mass-market ones (basic economics says they probably can’t - at least not at a profit)? But maybe something in the three-digit range?
ooops, hit the wrong button. anyway, i just broke my SS all to hell at the insane singlespeed world championships, and am kinda shopping around for a new custom 29er SS. wait times are up. waaaaayyyyy up. more builders, too. prices also, due to demand.
custom builders are doing great. like you, i predict this will continue, as new riders gain savvy.
twin dad. curtlo and waltworks, to name two, will set you up for 750 bux or so. screaming deal, when you consider what people will pay for a chinese aluminum frame or quick-made CF one ( "but, it has seatstays shaped like little aeroplane wings, and look, the top tube is shaped like an hourglass !!! " ). crazy.
“I miss Dre.”
I miss him, too. We did a lot of riding together in the 6 months before he moved to Houston. (He always smoked my butt.) He’s happy, though. He and Meg were finally able to be together after years of long distance relationships.
There will always be a place for small builders. When the horrible day that Richard Sachs passes on eventually comes, a million cyclists will cry out in anguish - having lost the dream forever.
Hmmm - with a several year waitlist, maybe I should just put my name down now!
I hit a pot-hole at Coeur d’ Alene last year that split my carbonfiber wheel open and I had to ship it back to the manufacture and buy a new rim. Also, remember a couple years ago when Lance was going up some mtn. and crashed when he caught his bars on a bag? That little crash broke his chainstay in half, making the frame scrap. Steel/alum/ti would have survived both of these examples. I think as people get tired of continually re-purchasing their equipment the “traditional” materials will start taking center stage again. Additionally, I doesn’t matter how you lay-up the carbonfiber, nothing is more beautiful than a traditional lugged steel ride. I’ll trade-in/replace a couple of my bikes but my Waterford isn’t ever going anywhere.
Try yaquiusa.com
Ves Mandaric makes a no-frills complete bike out of 7000 series aluminum with 105 for $1800. You might think that a bit high for a round-tubed bike but he will take your entire range of measurements and apply it to his wide ranges of sizes and geometries to make you a great bike. He will draw up a CAD drawing based off your dimensions and send it back to you to discuss what you think.
What you will get is a bike that is as close to custom as you can get, handles incredibly well in any terrain and is backed up by a couple of decades of framebuilding experience.
The first ride on my bike felt great and I raced it three days after it arrived to my fastest multi-sport split ever. There is not break-in period. It will be a rocket out of the box. Assuming your legs can provide the fuel …
Chad