Frame Building Courses
Enjoy a week building a frame,
with your own hands.
A truly unique experience, with 1-to-1 tuition, using quality hand tools and jigs, you'll be able to make a made-to-measure lugged steel frame, a completely bespoke frame that is for life...that offers an unbelievable riding experience...making cycling memories!
For a 5-day course, Monday to Friday, £1600 plus materials. The fee includes as much tea and coffee as you can drink and one of our black denim workshop aprons.
A truly personal experience
Choose whether you would like a steel or carbon fork, the style of lugs and braze-ons and then, sometimes the hardest bit: choosing the colour.
If you have ever made something, even the most simple of items, you probably know the great pleasure and pride that you had in using it or giving it to someone.
Reading this probably means that you like bikes and cycling, so how would you feel riding a bike on a frame that you made to a size and shape to fit you perfectly?
Sizing & Fitting
Peter Bird was the first frame-builder in the UK to introduce a frame building course back in 1993.
The courses today are taught by either Peter Bird or Robert Wade, both very experienced frame builders who produce Swallow bespoke frames & Ironbridge Bicycles and design the Landescape range of aluminium and carbon fibre frames.
Whilst guiding you through the technical process of building your very own frame,
we'll ensure you're welcomed to the team so you can enjoy your week with us.
We don’t like to restrict what you can do, though there may be some frame styles and techniques that would be outside the scope of a week-long course. We will send you an initial assessment questionnaire to see what type of frames and techniques would be suitable for you.
We prefer that the frame is complete and ready for painting by the end of the course.
What does a frame building course consist of?
The week-long course starts on Monday morning.
First, we size you on our sizing jig and explain the basics of size and frame geometry. This is then translated onto the frame jig and you can then start cutting and mitring tubes.
Before taking brazing torch to your frame you will work on a small test piece. You will then work through each step of construction and we’ll make sure that you gain the understanding of the work you have done.
By Friday afternoon you will have built your very own frame.
Prior to the course, we will discuss with you the type and style of frame that you plan to build and the type of equipment you will be fitting to the frame.
We can also help you design your paint scheme. After the course, when the frame has been painted, you can return to do a wheel-building and/or an assembly course to complete the build of your bike.
Summary of the main areas of the course:
- Building your very own bicycle frame and forks
- Fundamentals of sizing and fitting rider and bicycle
- An Introduction to basic design, choices of tubing and Bike CAD use
- An introduction and practice of brazing techniques and some silver soldering
- Quite a bit of filing
- Frame alignment and tracking
- Discussions on many other frame and bicycle industry related topics
Don't just take our word on it...
Some of our clients have written blogs during their courses and these can be seen here:
Availability & booking
FAQs
We can be booked up some 6 months ahead, please drop us an email to discuss and find out the next available course.
For a 5-day course, Monday to Friday, £1600.00 plus materials. The fee includes as much tea and coffee as you can drink and one of the black denim workshop aprons.
A tube-set, lugs, bottom bracket, frame ends, forks, fork crown and steerer (if required), braze-ons and bosses for the type of frame you are building, flux, brazing rod, silver solder, gas and air. We will discuss your exact requirements and then order or supply these for you. To ensure compatibility of all frame parts we encourage you not to buy these from other suppliers.
That depends on the tubing and style, but from approximately £250 for a Reynolds 525 or approximately £380 for a Reynolds 853 race frame. Forks range from £120 to £180. Frame parts again do vary from around £50 to over £150 depending on types of lugs, crowns, frame ends, and BB shells.
Nice as they are, they do require very accurate and clean brazing, something that is not easy to do on your first frame. Simple plain lugs, fork crown and BB shell are the order of the day, and there are quite a few variations.
Stainless parts require silver soldering, so are outside of the scope of your first frame. Filing and cleaning up lugs plus polishing lugs adds about another 2-3 hours work per lug, and they have to soldered very cleanly. So again outside the scope of a first frame and a weeks course.
These require very advanced techniques and skills. Only if you can convince us that you have the appropriate skills and experience, would we consider this request.
It requires very advanced techniques and skills and is quite time-consuming. If you can convince us that you have the appropriate skills and experience, would we certainly will consider this request. Experience can include a previous course with ourselves or another quality frame building course or if you have done any brazing before. Welding is quite a different technique, so although there is some heat control, it is not quite the same. However, please do contact us to discuss. We do suggest that on a 5-day course (due to the extra time required for brazing and filing) that we use a standard BB shell and the three main frame joints are fillet brazed.
Unfortunately, there is currently no lugged BBs available to facilitate this. For hub gears you can use sliding rear frame ends.
Shall we learn to walk before we can run? This is outside the scope of a week’s course, see points above.
This is definitely a two week build-time due to being lug-less, the sheer number of joints and is not for the faint-hearted. It requires very advanced techniques and skills and is time-consuming. Only if you can convince us that you have appropriate skills and experience, would we consider this request.
As yet there is no UK qualification in bicycle frame building. You will have been taught the basic skills by an experienced frame-builder, but you will require a lot more skills and experience before you could consider becoming a frame builder by yourself.
Ask this question after you have done the course.
A ride able frame that will require painting, photos of you building it, some great memories and a notebook full of notes and techniques describing how to build a frame. We provide the initial outline of the techniques and the course structure to you once you have paid your deposit.
We give you lots for recommendations of good local B&Bs, hotels or campsites that you can book yourself but we don’t do the booking for you.
Terms and Conditions
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To secure a place on a course a non-refundable deposit of £300 is payable at the time of booking.
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If we provisionally ‘pencil’ a booking for you while you check your diary/commitments, we will hold it for 7 days and then you must confirm and pay the deposit. The 7 day rule also applies if you need to re-schedule your course dates.
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The deposit is non-refundable if you cancel. We will always try to accommodate a change of date within a reasonable time scale. If this is not possible, then you may have to wait longer for suitable date.
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The balance of the course fee must be paid at least 4 weeks before the agreed start date of the course. This is non-refundable if you cancel. We will always try to accommodate a change of date within a reasonable time scale. If this is not possible, then you may have to wait longer for suitable date.
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If booking a place within 4 weeks of the start date of a course the full fee must be paid in time of booking. This is non-refundable. We will always try to accommodate a change of date within a reasonable time scale. If this is not possible, then you may have to wait longer for suitable date.
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We will make every effort to accommodate requests for specific material choices. However, we reserve the right to substitute materials and parts of an equal or superior specification, if the original choice is not available.
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The material cost will be calculated once a frame design has been agreed. If there are any variation in the agreed material specification, or requirement for additional materials during the course, these must be paid for by the end of the course.
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The course fee covers tuition, use of the workshop equipment and safety equipment.
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We will ensure that every effort will be made so that course participants produce frames of the highest quality. We cannot offer a warranty on the frames that you make.
Tour our showroom & workshop
Using google street view, you can tour our showroom & workshop, find instructions how below.
Our workshop is on the lower floor, to change floor level, click the floor number above the compass.
Instructions
- To move around, hover your cursor in the direction you want to go. Your cursor becomes an arrow that shows which direction you’re moving.
- To see where you might go next, look for the X. Click once to travel to the X.
- To look around, click and drag your mouse. You can also use the arrows to the left and right of the compass.
- To zoom in or out, scroll with your mouse or two-finger zoom with a touchpad. You can also use + and -below the compass.
- To position your Street View north, go to the bottom right and click the compass.
- To change floor level, click the floor number above the compass.
Information
