Custom Builds - Where to start ?
Posted by andy graham on
Off the shelf bikes are pretty amazing these days, with an ever growing range of sizes, price points to meet every budget and a sea of brands to navigate.
Nothing though, can even come close to the satisfaction of riding a bike built up especially for you, with all the sizes carefully chosen, you perfect colour scheme picked out.
Over the last 2 years we have taken pride in the attention to detail and time we spend helping you plan out your dream ride, whether you have a huge bikepacking trip planned, want to commute in style or a bike you spend as much time looking at as you do riding it.
The first step as always is pop down to us for a coffee and a chat, we'll get an idea of your riding, what you have been on before, what you liked and didn't like about your old bike, what your goals are, where you plan on taking the bike, does it need to be a bombproof steel 26-inch touring bike to take you on the silk road or will it be a full carbon racehorse that's your sunday best.
We'll help you pick out a frame to center your build around, with options from Surly, Singular and Ibis you're sure to find one that tugs on the heart strings.
Getting you sized up is the next big step, making sure the frame size, bar width and crank length are right for you are super important. Things like stem length, bar height and saddle position can be easily adjusted once the bike is assembled and we can get you sat on it.
If we were a french restaurant, this is part where we show you our a la carte menu, picking out your parts to suit your needs and budget. 1x,2x,3x, even single speed, there are loads of options for drive chains and we'll help pick out what will suit your needs best. Throw in options for wheel size(29/700c, 27.5, 26inch) or whether you want flat or drop handlebars and it all gets a bit daunting but you are in safe hand with us, having spent time on everything from fixed gear to gravel to downhill bikes we have some of the most well rounded knowledge on bike set up about. Tire choice, pedals, accent colours... the list is endless on the customisations you can make.
Most often people will use Cycle to Work vouchers for buying a custom build and we accept vouchers from pretty much all schemes including Cycle2Work, CycleScheme, Bike2Work, Vivup, Green Commute Initiative and CycleSolutions.