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dialled, curtis
I went and raced, and Lee came up today to watch.Mixed bag really on the racing, still haven`t made an A final at a national but diid win the B final on Sat, but fell off whilst in the lead of the B final today Also made good use of my new 661 body armour this weekend, but on a plus I managed to jump the whole first straight, which makes a big difference, and also jumped the doubles on the 3rd straight in practice However when I tried them again in a race I just smashed in to the face of the second jump, broke 5 spokes and completely ruined a brand new rim, bonced sideways and fell backwards down the side of the jump This also made me miss my second moto because I was still rebuilding the wheel Oh and I got sunburnt too Still enjoyed it though, and the pro racing was mint
If we're talking present day I can only think of Curtis (although as someone above says, they now get some of their frames made in Taiwan) and Hidden Nation (if they're still going, as I haven't heard much about them recently). Still quite a few quality road and MTB frame builders in the UK though (e.g. Dave Yates, Chas Roberts, Robin Mather, etc).Unfortunately, the UK is better at "making money" (i.e. banking, financial services, etc) these days than it is at "making things". I would've loved to have got my frames made in the UK, but there's no one who can make them in the volumes I buy them (e.g. 100 at a time) and even if they could, the quality would still probably not be as good as Taiwan (70% of the worlds bikes are made there now, so they've become very good at it) and the price would be a lot more. So instead of trying to get my frames made over here, I use British tubing (Reynolds) and support UK cycling causes instead (e.g. race team, regional/club races, Rough Ride, etc).
Going a tad off-topic here! I don`t think that there`s such a stigma with Taiwanese made frames these days.The quality of most Tai frames seems to be up there with US built frames.Thought one of S&Ms ads could have been construed as downright racist!
Quote from: HEYWOOD BMX on July 28, 2008, 09:24 AMIn this day and age, I don't think there are many people out there who wouldn't buy a frame they liked just because it was made in Taiwan.Im very much in agreement with you mike, that taiwan has the best bicycle manufacturing capability in the world.But especially because of that fact, im very interested to know whether theres any UK makers still out there.I know there is still quite a lot of road bike ones, and a few mtb ones. But as BMX is more of a kids thing (cough, cough) I was wondering If its still viable at all to make frames & parts within a reasonable price range in the UK?Also, whether there were any small boutique like independent frame builders making super blingy one off frames. Hve you ever heard of Archie Wilkinson? He makes cycle speedway frames, & sell completes.The frames are for 26" wheels, british made (by him I think) In a large number. Out of 4130. And he is able to sell frame & fork sets for £99. And Aluminium one for £199 if I remember right.To me that matches taiwan frames easy in price. So it seems running UK based manufacturing for a niche bike sport (much mroe niche than BMX!) is definetely still possible.
In this day and age, I don't think there are many people out there who wouldn't buy a frame they liked just because it was made in Taiwan.
