I don’t know how to build a bike frame. I would love to apprentice with a knowledgeable builder myself one day. These are my gathered thoughts from books, magazine articles, and yes, posts about bicycle building over the past several years. As well as buying and trying vintage bicycles of various designs for different purposes, and with different philosophies behind what makes for a “good bicycle”.
Frame assembling is done with simple tools and brazing is not the hardest skill to pick up.
bicycle building is about talking to the rider, and getting the information from that rider that you need in order to make a frame that pleases them. “The rider” can vary between someone who asks you to “make a frame the fits my body measurements” to “I need a top tube length that’s 55.25 long because I have an old back injury that shortens my reach and I’m going to use this 80mm stem in order to put tops of the drop bars 10mm ahead of the front wheels axle so I have the balance between stability and flick-ability that I’ve come to enjoy after my years of riding.
That person could have all the specific requirements for their new frame and understand everything that goes into the ride that they want, or they could be very specific and be mistaken as to what dimensions are needed to create the ride feel that they are after.
And that experience navigating between what a customer says they want, and what the customer actually needs to get the bike that they want, would be a big part of what gets handed down in the passing of a craft to the next generation.
then there are subdivisions within frame design models for their intent. I’m not interested in hammering up hills trying to be faster than my last time, or my racing competitor, so a builder with a stellar racing bike reputation would have less interest to me than one who can make a frame that’s stable going downhill with 25lbs in low riding front panniers, and 15 in a roll tucked behind my saddle.
a good builder will know what frames they enjoy building and if they exclusively make competition frames would send me to one who specializes in touring frames. And many are interested in and are equally skilled making either style and anything in between.
but the skill of a custom maker really comes down to the ability to navigate what a customer is trying to achieve, compare it to what they are asking for, and making sure those two requests are in alignment.
say I was interested in hammering up steep hills and I wanted a light frame in a premium tube set. Well I also weigh over two hundred pounds and a premium race weight tube set could make a frame more flexible than the ride feel I want to achieve. On the other hand I might be a super smooth spinner and even though I’m a bigger guy, a narrower gauge could be right for me. People can ride heavy or light in the saddle, unweighting for road irregularities or ploughing through them.
The people experience in frame building is what I believe we’re talking about when we say the culture of traditional bespoke bicycle crafting. That’s what’s absent from ordering a custom frame overseas by filing out a form online.
do I have that right?
i would be very VERY interested in a modern made classic lugged frame because I have a longer inseam for my height that makes fitting a vintage frame a slight compromise. I use a frame one size larger than my height would suggest so that when I raise my saddle to the appropriate height for my long inseam my handle bars don’t end up 10cm below saddle height. As I mentioned I ride touring bikes and if I wanted to get aero then this would be less of an issue but I only want around a 30mm drop from saddle to bars, efficient and out of the crosswind but still comfy for all day rides.
so my interest in a custom is from the (slightly) difficult to fit perspective.
Big frame and shortish stem with “a fist full of seatpost” in the French fit tradition works extremely well for me, and I don’t have immediate plans (or finances) to go custom, but yeah, if I had the means I’d do it. Ideally I’d go full constructor with racks, lights, and fenders all made to fit the frame. When they don’t need to be adjustable you can make the farkles lightweight and blended into the frame seamlessly.
that would be very cool.