A geometry chart with your name on it, hand-mitred steel, cast lugs and silver. Twenty-two weeks from fitting to first ride.
Each model fixes the things that should not move: tube set, tyre clearance, brake standard, where the racks go. Everything else in the chart is moved to fit the rider.
The classic lugged road frame. Level top tube, short chainstays, 28 mm tyres under rim or flat-mount disc brakes. Drawn for long days in the Peak.
£2,650 frame and fork, painted
A slacker head angle, longer stays and room for 40 mm tyres. Flat-mount disc, hidden mudguard mounts, the same lugs re-cut for the wider angles.
£2,850 frame and fork, painted
Low-trail front end for a handlebar bag, dynamo wiring routed through the fork, and braze-ons for every rack you will ever own.
£3,100 frame and fork, painted
Six stock sizes are the reference. A made-to-measure frame begins at the nearest one and moves every value the fitting says to move. Pick a size and the drawing above follows it.
| Measurement (mm unless noted) | 50 | 52 | 54 | 56 | 58 | 60 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Seat tube, centre to top | 500 | 520 | 540 | 560 | 580 | 600 |
| Effective top tube | 525 | 535 | 545 | 560 | 575 | 590 |
| Head tube | 110 | 125 | 140 | 155 | 172 | 190 |
| Head angle (degrees) | 71.5 | 72.0 | 72.5 | 73.0 | 73.0 | 73.5 |
| Seat angle (degrees) | 74.5 | 74.0 | 73.5 | 73.0 | 72.5 | 72.5 |
| Chainstay | 410 | 410 | 410 | 410 | 412 | 415 |
| Bottom bracket drop | 72 | 72 | 70 | 70 | 70 | 68 |
| Fork rake | 50 | 48 | 45 | 45 | 45 | 43 |
| Trail | 61 | 60 | 60 | 58 | 58 | 57 |
| Stack | 520 | 535 | 550 | 566 | 583 | 601 |
| Reach | 371 | 377 | 382 | 388 | 394 | 400 |
| Wheelbase | 978 | 981 | 985 | 992 | 1003 | 1012 |
| Standover | 745 | 765 | 785 | 805 | 825 | 845 |
| Rider height guide (cm) | 160 to 168 | 166 to 174 | 172 to 179 | 177 to 184 | 182 to 189 | 187 to 195 |
One builder does every frame start to finish. That is why the book is short and the lead time is honest.
On the jig in the workshop, or from a fit sheet and video if you are far away. We measure you, then measure the bike you like best.
A full-size drawing and a chart like the one above. Nothing is cut until you have signed the sheet.
Tubes mitred by hand to the drawing, tacked in the jig, then brazed with 56 percent silver. Lugs are filed and the shorelines thinned.
Checked on the surface table to a quarter of a millimetre, faced and chased, then painted two arches down at Wren Coachworks.
Assembled as a frameset or a full bike, with the geometry chart, a lug rubbing and the drawing rolled in a tube.
A lug is a cast steel sleeve that holds two tubes at a fixed angle. The braze fills the gap between sleeve and tube, so the joint is a long overlap in shear, not a bead of weld in tension. It is the reason a lugged frame from the seventies still rides.
We braze the main triangle with 56 percent silver at around 650 degrees, well below the point where heat-treated steel loses its temper. Brass is reserved for the dropouts and braze-ons, where its strength matters more than the heat.
A bent dropout is straightened. A dented tube is replaced by unbrazing the lug and sliding a new one in. We have re-tubed frames we built a decade ago and frames other people built forty years ago.
Every lug edge is filed to a knife line and the shoreline of braze taken back until the tube seems to grow out of the lug. Under paint it shows; under polish it is the whole point.
Air-hardening, gets stronger after brazing. Our default for the Ridgeway main triangle.
Oversize, thin-walled and stiff. Used on the Holme where 40 mm tyres and disc loads ask more of the rear end.
Heat-treated chrome-moly, a little more forgiving. The Loxley and every frame that carries luggage.
All frame prices include the fitting, the drawing, a matching fork, a single colour paint and a lifetime guarantee on the brazing. Prices are in pounds sterling and include tax.
Full builds are quoted per bike; the figures below are typical with a mechanical groupset and hand-built wheels.
Bring the bike you ride most, even if you dislike it. We measure you and the bike, ride the jig for an hour, and the chart falls out of that. Most people leave knowing why their current bike hurts.
Yes. The Holme is flat-mount disc with 12 mm thru-axles front and rear. The Ridgeway can be built for disc, though the lugged fork becomes a segmented crown fork to take the load.
Steel ones, yes: dents, bent dropouts, cracked stays, replacing a tube. We do not touch aluminium or carbon. Send photos first; most repairs are quoted within a day and take two to three weeks.
Children's frames are a joy and we build one or two a year at a reduced price. Tandems we refer to a friend in Yorkshire who has the jig for it.
The brazed joints, for the life of the original owner. Paint is guaranteed for two years against lifting. Crashes and rust from a winter in the garden are not covered, but both are repairable.
A railway arch with a surface table, two jigs and a kettle. Fittings are by appointment; visits are welcome on Friday afternoons when there is usually a frame on the stand and tea on the go.