…when I've finally hammered them out? I'll send beer/wine/whisky/cash!

Could be a nice little sideline actually. I'm sure quite a few people considering buying a custom frame would be tempted by the safety net of an impartial 2nd opinion and maybe the odd recommendation from a "famous" frame designer.

(I've obviously already done some research, talked to the framebuilder etc – I'm not after anyone to do me a complete design)

tricky to do so without knowing how you ride, body shape, kit preferences etc.. and it may undermine what an experienced builder has told you so it's probably not something many designers would want to do much of. it's all just opinions and different ways of balancing out the variables afterall, there is no right and wrong unless you know exactly how and what you ride and how you're laid out physically, so only you and the builder can do this really.

my one comment would be to make sure the builder you use has plenty of experience building the type of bike you want and can discuss what he's done for other customers – obvious really but frame construction skills transfer across bike types far more than the understanding of use and the tube dims or geometry that suits that use does. if he has this experience and you know what you want and why, you'll be getting a great frame i'm sure.

I had a custom frame built four years ago and went against both advice and the current fashion by speccing a short top tube and relatively steep angles. It turned out to be the best bike I've ever had and last year when I looked up the geometry of Orange's new R8 I found they've used almost exactly the same dimensions as I did.

Yep i find beer/wine/whisky is all the payment professionals require when helping in thier chosen field of expertise…

james-o will work for porn, and it doesn't even have to be that high class.

Impartial and opinion???You do know this is singletrack don't you.You could'nt get a concensus on what colour the sky is
.Most of them on here would do it for a banana or two given the average IQ!!!

why not post them up?

I speced my own frame's geometry, not sure I'll be able to help tho.

I have designed one or two bikes in my time,, some have even made into production,,
but wouldnt feel right commenting on any geometry you may have specified ,, as it is a very personal thing,, what people think is the latest thing in geometry is someone elses nightmare,,

but what i have done for a friend of mine is look at all the bikes he likes, to ride and simular style on the market and note down all the angles and lenghts of frames of the same size and you would be surprised how simular they are ,,

doing wild and new geometries is not for me to try as it's very costly getting a custom bike built only to find it's a dawg,, go with stuff you know works