Paint $300+. Nice tubeset + dropouts shipped to Oz $250+ … then there’s Gas, braze materials, clean-up, tonnes of sand paper, wear/tear on shop tools, and outlay for fixturing, workspace, rent etc. Then there’s time … 5 to 10 hours (at least) with customer emails and decisions and sizing and changes and reassurance + 25-30 hours (on average) for each frame.
At the rate you’re offering to pay for something unique, handcrafted and truly special … Brakefree could earn more delivering Pizza’s for a living. You may wanna evaluate how much you value something special.
Spizz, I’ve got nooooo idea what’s involved in this shit. It’s like when people ask me how much to make them a couch, and I say “you’d be looking around $1200 to $10,000, depends what materials and everything you want”
and they say ‘but you can buy a new couch for $300!’
And I say ‘would you buy a $300 car?’
Fuck.
Cats are cheaper, and people seem to value them.
Finish your apprenticeship, you’ll be fine and hopefully one day I’ll find that right Louis XV chaise that needs your skills
I appreciate your analogy with regard the costs of restoration and how some punters comparing it to buying a buying a $300 sofa. Good things take time and if we really love it we’ll work out a way to pay what it costs.
Sorry if I was blunt but whilst bikes are simple there is quite a lot of detail and money involved in making top quality examples.
I think at this point the value for me lies in providing someone with a frame that they know has been lovingly and painstakingly crafted, something that they can enjoy for many years to come.
Idealistic? Hells yeah, and idealism doesn’t pay the bills but I would like to get some awesome frames out there to fixed.org guys who I know will appreciate them, once there are some frames in circulation people will be able to see the quality that I produce and will (hopefully) be willing to pay the price for quality?
Think of it as a semi-sponsorship type deal, you get a beautiful frame at a good price, but you have to flaunt it about town!
I hope I am not devaluing the art in the process, I still want people to know that it is no easy gig, hell I spent upwards of 4 hours per lug filing, shaping, sanding and finishing for the frame that I am working on this week!
Y’know dude, it takes 10 hours to do a traditional sprung seat, and 20 minutes to do a modern one?
And the fabrics vary from $10m to $5000m.
So yeah, bikes are over my head.
But I’ve always thought, when I finish my apprenticeship, I’m getting a custom frame. No matter what.
And I’ve got a few months to go. So if cool keif here tells me he’s gonna build me a frame for 2k I’m gonna save my fucking tits off.
