Originally Posted by bulgie

There's no one better than Bilenky, except I heard a couple stories of extremely long waiting times for custom frames, like years. But that probably doesn't apply for repairs than can be done in a half-hour. Just try to get some commitment on how long it'll take.

That people are willing to wait for years to get some of his work can be taken as a testament to his skill and reputation. Not everyone was happy about the wait though, because it wsn't made clear at the outset how long it could end up taking. Usually when this happens the cause is some business or personal setback the builder experienced, like loss of a key employee* or house burned down, divorce or some such. No idea about Mr. Bilenky's business or personal life, I'm remembering some other custom framebuilder situations I've been aware of over the years.

* I did that to an employer once. Our custom tandems got a glowing review in Buycycling Magazine (they said it was the most "advanced" tandem they'd ever seen) and soon we had a 3-year waiting list. I was the only person there making the tandems. The owner hired a manager for the frame shop, and the new manager's first action as manager was to give me a 50% pay raise (from $4 to a whopping $6/hr, no joke!) and for a brief time I was able to actually pay my rent and eat. (BTW this was after working there for 5 years, and I was already an experienced journeyman when I was first hired.) Then the owner figured out why he was signing these larger checks, and he busted me back to my old wage! Somehow he was surprised when I didn't lay down for a 33% pay cut, and instead gave my notice. The shop I moved to paid me $8/hr to start, so it was a no-brainer for me (it was a cooler/better shop too). The old boss complained, something like "what am I going to do about all these tandem orders?" and I had to shrug and say it's not my problem. He hired a new apprentice, I trained him as my "notice". Nice guy but a beginner, so the frames that those people in the waiting list ended up getting weren't nearly as nice as the one they read about in Buycycling. I'm sure most people never noticed, however the people with the fork that separated (steerer came out of the crown) definitely noticed!

Moral #1: stay away from tandem frames made by a new apprentice with little to no oversight by anyone experienced. Corollary: know who is going to actually build your frame.

Moral #2: think hard about buying any custom frame, versus one you can test-ride before buying, and ride away the same day, versus a multi-year wait. I don't take that advice myself, I'm too much of a bike snob to ride off-the-shelf bikes for the most part, but I'm a weirdo, and I build them myself. I'm sure 99.999% of riders will be better off getting a stock frame.

Wow I guess I digressed from the topic at hand there, sorry!