Australian made custom road bikes - info please?

You want CF? Nah, go here, Llewellyn Bikes and discover something else. 🙂

Walrus said:

I'm always thinking about my next bike etc. I read the article in Pro
Cycling about the Serotta Ottrott (custom built carbon) and it got be
thinking.

What would a custom built frame in Australia cost? Who makes them?
How would they compare with "off the shelf" options?

Dunno the answers to those, but have you looked here?

http://www.teschnerbikes.com/

--
..dt
1996 Diamond Back 'Expert Tg' Roadie (7spd DT shifters, favourite bike!)
2004 Trek 2300 Roadie (9spd Ultegra)
2003 DiamondBack 'Criterium' Roadie (8spd Sora, rain bike)

cfsmtb wrote:

You want CF? Nah, go here, Llewellyn Bikes and discover something else. 🙂

Mrow.

Went and visited this guy a couple of years ago - was going to buy one of his frames. Excuse the french, but this guy builds [censored] nice bikes.

LotteBum

Oh also, regarding cost - I don't think you'd get away with anything under $2k. And get a Llewellyn.

I have one of Aldo's steel tourers, but he does do road bikes as well. The business is quantum bicycle manufacturers, and you can look em up in the white pages; Farmer Street, North Perth? WA.

till

LotteBum said:

cfsmtb wrote:

You want CF? Nah, go here, Llewellyn Bikes and discover something else. 🙂

Mrow.

Went and visited this guy a couple of years ago - was going to buy one of his frames. Excuse the french, but this guy builds [censored] nice bikes.

LotteBum

I'd love to visit and chat and generally dribble all over his workshop, but I have no excuse for doing so. If only it were otherwise. Even without having seen one in the metal, I could seriously go for a custom Llewelyn frame. We'd have to agree to differ on some philosophical points though...I think I'd like a bare bones semi-lightweight street fixie frame from him - tight wheel clearances because I couldn't care less about guards and I don't want to compromise things allowing for them. I think I'd be inclined to stick with 700C wheels even though at my height I'm just short enough that he'd probably suggest that I go to 650. I like his ideas about frame angles but for a fixie, I'll run a fairly high bottom bracket thanks. It'll allow a more relaxed seat tube angle anyway...just needs slightly longer chain stays. Now, where to get the dollars from?

Oh, and French is a perfectly reasonable language to discuss such things in, especially that dialect.

cfsmtb said:

You want CF? Nah, go here, 'Llewellyn Bikes'
(http://www.llewellynbikes.com/) and discover something else. 🙂

As I expected, about three pages in I discovered that they only
do steel. You cunning old farts never give up, do you? :-)

--
Home page: http://members.westnet.com.au/mvw

cfsmtb said:

You want CF? Nah, go here, Llewellyn Bikes and discover something else. 🙂

ooooh yeahh!!! spank me silly. steel is reeeell!!!!!! 😄

you can get custom CF thru cecil Walker with the Cinelli 'mecano' bike
(also Spoken and i assume a few others about too) rather sexy lookin curves. ggrrrooowwwlllllll

cinelli.itpromozioneOpen ↗

quote='Michael Warner'On Fri said:

You want CF? Nah, go here, 'Llewellyn Bikes'
(http://www.llewellynbikes.com/) and discover something else. 🙂

As I expected, about three pages in I discovered that they only
do steel. You cunning old farts never give up, do you? :-)

--
Home page: http://members.westnet.com.au/mvw[/QUOTE]

He is contemplating alu as well. As he points out, the difference is about 200-300 grams which is not a decisive amount. I know that I'm carrying 10-20 times that extra just in being overweight, never mind bidons, pump, puncture kit/tube etc. This is not to say that I am in any way immune to the allure of carbon or Ti. I'd love a crazy light bike, but it wouldn't really suit my usage pattern and really, shaving a few secs off my commute to work isn't a priority. If you want it to race, that's a different ball game, especially at higher levels. If you are after a lightweight bike, he does actually do those in steel...I read an incredibly positive review of one of his bike...does anyone know the interview I'm talking about/have a link? Anyway, as far as gorgeous custom velocipedesque beauty goes, he da man.

Have a look at http://www.hillbrick.com.au/index.php Paul builds a nice
ike - all materials
Bob C

[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

cfsmtb said:

You want CF? Nah, go here, 'Llewellyn Bikes'
(http://www.llewellynbikes.com/) and discover something else. 🙂

ooooh yeahh!!! spank me silly. steel is reeeell!!!!!! 😄

you can get custom CF thru cecil Walker with the Cinelli 'mecano' bike
(also Spoken and i assume a few others about too) rather sexy lookin
curves. ggrrrooowwwlllllll

http://www.cinelli.it/eng/promozione/

--
flyingdutch

Resound wrote:

Now, where to get the dollars from?

Warning: FREE FINANCIAL ADVICE BELOW!

Have a baby or two after July 1, 2006. The baby bonus will be $5,000 as opposed to $3,000. Paulie and I plan to have quintuplets around that time so that we can both ride Dura-Ace equipped Llewellyn frames. 😄

Oh, and French is a perfectly reasonable language to discuss such things in, especially that dialect.

Hey thanks for that. 🙂

LotteBum

"Michael Warner" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

cfsmtb said:

You want CF? Nah, go here, 'Llewellyn Bikes'
(http://www.llewellynbikes.com/) and discover something else. 🙂

As I expected, about three pages in I discovered that they only
do steel.

If you REALLY want Alu, he can have a friend build you one.

I believe that Anatomic (www.anatomic.com.au) is doing a custom carbon
frame; Mecano.

You cunning old farts never give up, do you? :-)

Quoted message said:

--
Home page: http://members.westnet.com.au/mvw

Resound <[email hidden]> wrote in
news:[email hidden]:

Quoted message said:

LotteBum said:

cfsmtb wrote:

You want CF? Nah, go here, 'Llewellyn Bikes'
(http://www.llewellynbikes.com/) and discover something else. 🙂

Mrow.

Went and visited this guy a couple of years ago - was going to buy

one

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

of his frames. Excuse the french, but this guy builds [censored] nice
bikes.

LotteBum

I'd love to visit and chat and generally dribble all over his

workshop,

Quoted message said:

but I have no excuse for doing so. If only it were otherwise. Even
without having seen one in the metal, I could seriously go for a

custom

Quoted message said:

Llewelyn frame. We'd have to agree to differ on some philosophical
points though...I think I'd like a bare bones semi-lightweight street
fixie frame from him - tight wheel clearances because I couldn't care
less about guards and I don't want to compromise things allowing for
them. I think I'd be inclined to stick with 700C wheels even though at
my height I'm just short enough that he'd probably suggest that I go

to

Quoted message said:

650. I like his ideas about frame angles but for a fixie, I'll run a
fairly high bottom bracket thanks. It'll allow a more relaxed seat

tube

Quoted message said:

angle anyway...just needs slightly longer chain stays. Now, where to

get

Quoted message said:

the dollars from?

Oh, and French is a perfectly reasonable language to discuss such
things in, especially that dialect.

Ridden two (rich friends?) and visited once. I decided after one lap of
the block on a Centaur equipped that my reward for achieveing certain
goals (weight/speed) will be a Llewelyn. I'll never be less than 100 kg
which rules out CF anyway.

The only question would be racing or touring/audax? I love your
suggested mix but I can only probably afford one (hopefully around the
end of the year).

Cheers

BrettM

Michael Warner <[email hidden]> wrote in news:ls7d2scxm2hn.f68d1mslt6a9
[email hidden]:

Quoted message said:

cfsmtb said:

You want CF? Nah, go here, 'Llewellyn Bikes'
(http://www.llewellynbikes.com/) and discover something else. 🙂

As I expected, about three pages in I discovered that they only
do steel. You cunning old farts never give up, do you? :-)

The current Hillbrick poll is what material do you prefer. Steel leads
over CF 55.5%/32.3%. There must be a lot of cunning old farts.

Cheers

BrettM

BrettM said:

The current Hillbrick poll is what material do you prefer. Steel leads
over CF 55.5%/32.3%. There must be a lot of cunning old farts.

I wouldn't know. They're mostly way behind me on the hiils :-)

--
Home page: http://members.westnet.com.au/mvw

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

There must be a lot of cunning old farts

quote='Michael Warner said:

I wouldn't know. They're mostly way behind me on the hiils :-)

Being cunning old farts they know that its not whose where in the hills, its whose behind when they cross the line. Sounds of fat ladies singing 😄

Hugh

Walrus said:

I'm always thinking about my next bike etc. I read the article in Pro
Cycling about the Serotta Ottrott (custom built carbon) and it got be
thinking.

What would a custom built frame in Australia cost? Who makes them?
How would they compare with "off the shelf" options?

I have an old 'Hillman'
(http://home.vicnet.net.au/~hillman/custom.html) custom steel frame
(not made for me) so I know that Hillman are an option. I also know of
'Hillbrick' (http://www.hillbrick.com.au/).

How much are these sorts of bikes likely to cost, eg for a custom
carbon frame?

You can try Pave bikes in Margaret River in Western Australia.

http://www.pavebikes.com/

Zoom

BrettM said:

Ridden two (rich friends?) and visited once. I decided after one lap of
the block on a Centaur equipped that my reward for achieveing certain
goals (weight/speed) will be a Llewelyn. I'll never be less than 100 kg
which rules out CF anyway.

A good quality CF frame will outlast a steel or Al Alloy frame (and
Unobtanium), especially if you're heavy. Remember the huge advantage
of composites is that you can make them as strong as you need to at the
main stress points. It's very hard to make a metal frame bike
last essentially forever. If a manufacturer won't give you a lifetime
warranty, go to a different manufacturer.

And don't be fooled by pretty lugs, they don't make the bike any
stronger than
any other lugs (yes, I know about the stress-dispirsing of lugs that
have extensions/patters)

Walrus said:

I'm always thinking about my next bike etc. I read the article in Pro
Cycling about the Serotta Ottrott (custom built carbon) and it got be
thinking.

What would a custom built frame in Australia cost? Who makes them?
How would they compare with "off the shelf" options?

A key question here is do you need a custom frame? Some people
do (or think they do), some don't. There's a lot of different
off the shelfers out there, and a lot of nonsense and
snake oil in both off the shelf sales pitches and custom
frame designs. It pays to be skeptical about any claims made
by anyone about how they're the only ones who can make a bike fit you.

Off the shelf designs have some advantages, often they're made by
manufacturers who have some very high quality control standards, do
destructive tests, and have lifetime warranties, which not all custom
frame builders would have the resources to match. Sometimes
(and probably not often) custom frame builders don't necessarily
understand the materials they're working with too. I'd be pretty
careful with a custom built CF frame in Australia, as I doubt there's
many makers who do much more than
chop and glue pipes into lugs. We're a small market and an even
smaller one for CF custom frames. There's not a lot of opportunity to
build up a lot of experience with CF. CF composites are the best
materials to make bicycles out of, but they require more understanding
of the material and more resources than slapping a bunch of steel pipes
into a jig and welding or brazing away, and if it's done wrong it will
break. If it's done right, it won't break, ever*. I expect my CF bike
will last a very long time indeed. Good manufacturers know this and
offer serious warranties. Good manufacturers also offer serious
warranties on Al and steelies, so again, check how confident
the manufacturer is that their bikes are well made and will last.

A lot of off the shelf CF bikes also suffer from manufacturers not
really understanding the properties of CF composites (anyone here
seen or ridden any of the early Raceline CF bikes? Urgh ....are any of
them still in one, uncracked, piece?). With a bunch of manufacturers
rushing to make CF bikes these days, it's wise to carefully check how
confident they are about how long the frame will last. Check their
warranty!

For what it's worth, I saw a brand-new Cracknfail Synapse today, with a

crushed seat tube (the gelcoat was blistered at the expansion joint
under the collar), so the carbon was probably damaged). This was fresh
out of the box, untouched by the bike shop that the frame had arrived
at. CF requires more careful handling than most metals ... Perhaps
that famous manufacturer may regret farming their manufacturing out
rather than doing it in-house? You don't always get what you think
you're paying for.

* under normal conditions. Crashes don't count 🙂