Cool, might be some time over easter before I get round to it but I’ll defo drop you a line

Stock reply from a Chinese builder “yes, no problem”

Be slightly wary of this though.

Having spent 6 months of last year working with a Chinese manufacturer getting an aluminium hi-fi chassis made.

Their idea of ‘no problem’ wasn’t the same as ours.

They kept saying that ‘anything was possible’ while going through about 7 prototypes which just weren’t up to scratch.

And that was including having someone on the ground in China.

Eventually we had to switch manufacturers.

The other to watch out for is that you want someone who works with Ti all the time. I’ve seen some custom Ti work before where the welds were shocking. If I was paying $$$$’s and the welds were shit I’d be ashamed to own it…it’s not like you can send custom work back (without losing lots of money). Sure if a weld’s cocked up it can be re-done, but not without introducing more heat and making the material more brittle. And that’s without going into distortion, etc.

(I used to be a welder/fabricator)

A couple of other Ti builders:

ticycles.com
sevencycles.com

I have a Merlin Works 4.0 like flatboy. I bought it in late 2007. Ellsworth sold basically the same thing as the Tiruth, but they were laser marked instead of decals. I got the Merlin becase a LBS could order them, and there was no Ellsworth dealer for 100s of miles. The Merlin was a bit cheaper as well.

There you go podge, a builder who won’t just make anything whether it’s any good or not, which is the problem with ‘a number of’ far eastern builders. Often good fabricators, questionable bike designers.

I don’t need a bike designer. I need a frame builder.

That’s another thing with the UK lot, they all presume to know better without even looking at what I have

So every UK frame builder has been contacted you? They all presume to know better? Why? 🙂

Because building frames is the hardest thing in the world and no one could ever match their knowledge so it’s not worth asking about my background or even casting a quick glance of my designs to see if it’s possible.

Much better to to just keep avoiding innovation, new ideas & continue to moan / bad mouth foreign workers

From the way you’ve moaned and whinged on here, I’d probably avoid you as well! You make it sound like the UK could support a pool of custom bike makers in all materials in all styles just waiting for people like you to come along and buy one (just one).

Why not do a framebuilding course and beat them at their own game then?

podge, be realistic.

For most uk framebuilders building a one off fs frame will take ages as its not what they are used to, so they will likely lose money and only gain knowledge they’ll never use again.

I’ve got some sympathy with Podge, getting UK frame builders to build even in something as prosaic as Ali as some of them sucking through their teeth, one even told me that he wouldn’t want to build a frame that could take a fork as long as 140mm, as “It wouldn’t work, and wouldn’t be safe” and that’s a direct quote…

Anyway, the Ti that bikes are made from is pretty rubbish in the grand scheme of things, but there’s no reason you can’t make a nice FS out of the material.

I could do a frame building course but that would cost me more than getting something built in China & apparently there is no money in it do I’d have to take a pay cut.

Al, I am being realistic. If you read back to my first post this started as me saying I was happy to get Chinese made stuff. It’s only after the brigade of “China is rubbish” turned up that I point out why I’d be happy to go there.

I had a little car park spin on a black sheep softail a year or so ago. I suppose it counts a FS. It was a great bike.

I’d buy a Ti FS I really like the look and finish of ti.

As for waste of money, most of mountain biking is.

For me Ti only works best on FS when it is part of the design and not just a version of an alu FS bike.

Examples are the Ibis BowTi where the frame has 5 inches of travel in the frame, no mechanical pivots. Ibis only did 269 of them because of the expense of producing. I have one and its lurvly. Steve Potts will build you one but expect to pay top TOP dollar.

Others include many of the soft tails such as black sheep and I think litespeed did one ages ago.

Otherwise, in truth, youre buying it for the aesthetic.

and it’s such a nice aesthetic. 🙂

Maybe thats the problem – in the US they will build things and think about how to make it work, in the far east, they will build things without thinking if it will work, and here we won’t build stuff if we don’t know if it could work….

Bratty, that does seem to be the case

In my experience, and I get approached to build a lot of prototype and experimental things, the problem really is that most “bike designers” don’t have much of a budget.

In my experience, and I get approached to build a lot of prototype and experimental things, the problem really is that most “bike designers” don’t have much of a budget.

I agree.

I’m constantly coming up with stupid ideas for bikes, I’m glad of two things,

1. I don’t have the money.
2. A framebuilder would talk me out of it. (36er FS SS Fatbike)

I had a DNA, son still has his. No suspension at all but great bike, very well made in Russia. These guys seem to do some amazing work, http://forums.mtbr.com/bike-frame-discussion/triton-bikes-titanium-frames-handmade-russia-anyone-583688.html
Towards the end of the thread they are building a titanium fat bike frame. I have a Moonlander and love it. You should consider a Ti fat bike, brilliant fun.
Brian

OP, I will probably be selling the Merlin Works 4.0 frame in this thread very soon, if you would be interested? It’s a large (18.75″ I believe) in excellent condition. One or two very slight scuffs on the (alu) rear triangle, but that’s it.

Let me know if you are interested.

tfb.

Just on the off-chance, the frame and/or whole bike will likely be going for sale within the next week or so, so drop me an email if you’re interested in either. As pictured on page 1 of this thread.

How much? Frame only.

Probably £1k with shock.