I’d like to have a custom full suspension frame built. I am not fussed about the material used.

I know of;

?Meilec bikes in poland. They look good. Communication is a bit slow though.

?starling cycles. They look ace but have a long waiting list.

?Marino bikes in Peru. The latest frames I’ve seen look good, and they are a very good price, but I’ve read some mixed reviews.

Are there others I should be considering?

Thanks

http://singletrackworld.com/2017/05/video-the-btr-pinner/ 🙂

BTR?

Robot: http://www.prestige-cycles.co.uk/single-post/2017/05/19/The-Robot-Bike-Co-R160-cutting-edge-and-made-to-measure

Both look nice but are waaaaaay too expensive

Do you want a custom frame purely for novelty sake? Its just if you want something so specific to you to warrant the expense of a custom frame, then surely material choice should be one of the biggest factors.

https://www.instagram.com/sickbicycles/

These boys are working on a steel Full suss at the mo.

Their 29″ Hardtail looks amazing.

I want a custom frame because there aren’t any out there with the geometry and price that I want. Steel and aluminium both have advantages and disadvantages as far as I’m concerned hence nor being bothered about which material it is.

Someone was asking the other day about mi-tech.de, their Druid model starts from 1890€.

Nicolai will do a full custom for you, and it’ll be bloody well put together too

I see Swarf have a steel 29er in the pipeline, would be surprised if there were no custom options.

blackmountainsrider – Member
I want a custom frame because there aren’t any out there with the geometry and price that I want.

Well I’m guessing the price of the custom will exceed anything on the market so does anything have the geo you want? The other question obviously is does your Geo actually make sense?

I’ve spent a while looking at current FS 29ers and there are actually only one or two with the reach and seat tube length I would need. None that also have the kind of chainstay length I’d prefer.

I would be going to Starling myself if he wasn’t snowed under, and I had more dosh.

Could get complex. A custom FS opens up not just custom geometry but also custom suspension design, you’d need either a stock suspension design that you like or a fair bit of knowledge on boingage.

The BTR is what? £2.5K for a frame (given that Nicolai start from about the same in Euros for a standard frame, don’t they?) …Seems about right especially if you’re going to give them custom specs to work with.

How much d’you want to spend?

Not full custom, but MDE bikes offer their “Rider tuned geometry”; http://www.mdebikes.com/rider-tuned-geometry/

“The geometry you can choose are:
_ST’ (Seat tube lenght)
_TTR (Virtual Top Tube) Or Reach
_HA (Head angle)
_HT (Head tube length)”

For an additional 150Euro on top of the frame cost.

blackmountainsrider – Member
I want a custom frame because there aren’t any out there with the geometry and price that I want.

What figures are you trying to get to? Maybe there is a reason no-one makes them… 😳

chakaping – Member
I’ve spent a while looking at current FS 29ers and there are actually only one or two with the reach and seat tube length I would need

What numbers are you after?

nwmlarge – Member

https://www.instagram.com/sickbicycles/

These boys are working on a steel Full suss at the mo.

Their 29″ Hardtail looks amazing.

They look amazing!

honourablegeorge – Member

chakaping – Member
I’ve spent a while looking at current FS 29ers and there are actually only one or two with the reach and seat tube length I would need

What numbers are you after?

Guessing it’s really long reach you want, like a 29er bird aeris?

I’m after the geometry of the pole evo link with a single pivot and 10mm shorter chainstays. I’d like to have the option to adjust this as well idealy.

No one makes it.

I’d love to buy a Nicolai but they are a bit out of my budget at the moment.

I think your best bet is to probably approach some frame builders, with an idea of your budget, some ideas about what you want, and see what they can do for you. You might find that with a bit of compromise they may be able to get nearer what you have to spend?

It may very well be worth getting in touch with folk that don’t traditional manufacture full suss as well, while they might not be able to help you directly, but might be able to put you in touch with some other options?

What numbers are you after?

Well I did a princess-and-the-pea post about mid-travel 29er frames a while ago, but I’ve changed my preference on chainstay length since after demoing a couple of bikes with long stays and liking them.

460 reach
450 max seattube
445-450-ish chainstays
66-67deg HA

I really loved the large FlareMAX but the seat tube is 480mm, Orange Stage 5 is almost there but slightly too short reach and too high seat tube. Might get away with that one.

Perhaps I’ve overlooked something. Can’t afford a Nicolai or Pole sadly.

Both look nice but are waaaaaay too expensive

[quote]there aren’t any out there with the geometry and price that I want[/quote]

bit out of my budget at the moment.

I think you might need to adjust your expectations, anything custom is going to be very expensive* compared to off the peg, unless it’s built by a monkey, then it might just be a little expensive, but it’ll also probably be awful**.

Having been down this road (with BTR, who were ace by the way, totally recommend them!) I have some experience, and mostly it’s that as soon as you say you want a custom full suss, most builders don’t want anything to do with you, even less so if you are working to a strict budget. A few are a bit more open minded and willing to chat, but it will require lots of communication and depends what exactly you mean by ‘custom’, a lot longer than you think in terms of time, and probably more money than you were expecting. Coupled to that you need to be willing to accept that as a custom job, you need to treat the first build as a risk/prototype, it might be excellent, it might be OK, it might be awful, but I can guarantee everyone who has ever been down this road will tell you that if they were to do it again, they’d tweak something as it wasn’t exactly perfect first time round, there is a very real possibility that your custom wonder frame turns out to be not quite right, are you prepared for that risk?

If I were you I’d be looking harder at off the peg stuff that is ‘close enough’ and tweakable to suit your needs, or just accept that more money may be required.

Having said all that, it’s an excellent project and experience to get your teeth stuck into so if you really want to pursue it and have the patience and funds to do so then crack on, it’s great fun and you’ll learn along the way 🙂

* + ** this is doubly true for full sus as it’s a lot more complicated to build a good one.

(i have no experience of this)
Maybe brant or the lot cotic were going to use could help, do you have the blueprints for the pole as this would reduce the faff factor a lot im guessing.

• Price: €2450 frame inc. shock, axle, headset

from pinkbike is that correct?
https://www.pinkbike.com/news/pole-evolink-140-review.html

Thats not an insignificant amount of cash on a frame – are you looking to spend upto that…

Based on the numbers of the older Carve 9 29er, maybe the new 2017 MDE Carve? Will be able to tweak the reach, ST and HA to your liking. Probably be about £1650-1700.

If you have a frame you like currently could you get a custom front triangle made for it? I recall some bloke had a custom front end made by BTR for his Lawill Yeti.
Just checked, it was amedias

Based on the numbers of the older Carve 9 29er, maybe the new 2017 MDE Carve? Will be able to tweak the reach, ST and HA to your liking. Probably be about £1650-1700.

Thanks, but I think I’m going to leave it a year or so and see what else comes out.

I’ve just built up a secondhand Enduro 29er to keep me going and make use of my nice non-boost bits.

custom front end made by BTR for his Lawill Yeti

At which point does a Lawwill Yeti cease to be a Lawwill Yeti? 🙂

Well it was a Lawwill Schwinn anyway (Straight 6) but now it’s a Lawwill BTR, it’s slightly differently specc’d these days but it still gets regular use and is still as bat-sh1t mental as the day it was built, crazy quick in the right circumstances and once you’ve worked out how to get the best out of the back end.

Get a frame builder to chop 30mm off the seat tube of a flare max? Cant see it causing too much trouble even if you have to remove the reinforcing tube.

Get a frame builder to chop 30mm off the seat tube of a flare max? Cant see it causing too much trouble even if you have to remove the reinforcing tube.

My future may well involve a secondhand one and a hacksaw. Couldn’t do it to a new frame though.

😀

Well it was a Lawwill Schwinn anyway (Straight 6) but now it’s a Lawwill BTR

It was a yeti with Schwinn decals 🙂

18bikes would be my recommendation.

Why the need for a 450mm seat tube?
Not using a dropper post?

Why the need for a 450mm seat tube?
Not using a dropper post?

If this is for me, it’s so I can get the saddle low enough when the post is fully dropped on steep trails. I have short legs.

have read good thing about this guys hardtails – new full sus looks like the starling

http://babahbikes.com/custom/

import costs may may kill it as an option

You!ll probably need a straight seat tube then chakaping.

Couldn’t you buy a flare max and have a new front triangle made for it?

I have a large flare max, bloody brilliant bike.

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=spE78ubTEL4[/video]

10 Stunning Steel Full Suspension Bikes You Cannot Ignore

I picked up a switchback unveil 9 frame (hammerhead thumper) and also goes under various other names.

I sized up to a large to get the larger reach. I cut the seat tube down and reinforcing bar off. Slapped in a -2 deg headset.

I built it as a winter bike but my Bronson seems to be gathering dust as it’s so fast.