Classic/hand built bikes in your "shed"

[tiermat]

Do you have any? No, I'm not going to pop round whilst you are out and help myself

Just interested, as I seem to be developing a liking for locally built frames (for a certain, loose, definition of loose).

I have a Dave Yates
My daughter has a Paul Donohue (not many 10 year olds can say they have a hand built bike frame! )
I am looking for another DY or PD for myself, and maybe one for Mrs T.
Dunno where the 1959 Carlton that Mrs T currently has, nor the 1983 Holdsworth Avanti would fit into that schema, but there you go.

 

[Cycleops]

Perhaps someone could take a moment to define a "hand built frame", obviously it's been built by hand but does this mean all the others are built by robots? Or is there another way of building frames. Forgive my ignorance.

 

[tiermat]

Hand built = just that, really, not mass produced in a factory in the far east, but by a (usually) one guy working in his shed/barn/bike shop. Dave Yates used to work out of Newcastle (there or there abouts) and Paul Donohue used to work out of Bishop Auckland. I guess I actually mean, strictly speaking, craftsman built.

 

[biggs682]

i suspect we are really saying made to measure or order rather than hand made

 

[Windassisted]

"BESPOKE" Or is that only for wheels ?

 

[alecstilleyedye]

my clunker mtb has a 'hand-built in uk' sticker, when the alu frame and components are almost certainly from the far east. my lbs hand-built it out of the box...

 

[Drago]

My 96 Saracen is 'hand built in the UK'.

 

[GarryG]

Guessing the '38 Hercules was hand built!

 

[Creakycrank]

Guessing the '38 Hercules was hand built!

It certainly was, although by 38 they had built nearly 6 million bicycles, so the workers at Aston Birmingham probably didn't have their hands on it for long!. But their manufacturing process and material quality was good due to the scale of purchase of the raw materials meant they could specify high quality from suppliers, and absolutely everything was made in house, with exception of the tyres and inner tubes, which were made down the road at Fort Dunlop. Really quite impressive things are Aston made Hercules bicycles.

 

[Creakycrank]

My 1936 Sunbeam was built by hand in the Sunbeamland factory in Wolverhampton, even the chaincase a multiple piece assembly was brazed and lead loaded by hand to make it look like a smooth one piece lozenge, pics somewhere on my oldenglishbicycles.wordpress blog after I stripped the paint.

 

[biggs682]

i am saying 6 of mine are

 

[fossyant]

My Hand built for me bike wouldn't be seen dead in a shed. Pah.

 

[DTD]

Not in the shed, but my Brian Rourke – after being ridden at L'Eroica Britannia it's doing a spot of service as a commuter whilst waiting to be sold.

 

[raleighnut]

My Worksop 531 Raleigh frame was handbuilt as was my 653 TT frame (just not sure who built it, no frame number headbadge or decals) and of course my Carlton.

 

[TheDoctor]

My Carlton, and my Paul Donohue. Both 531, and still lovely bikes.