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AN ENDANGERED CRAFT T


Steel frame building has been deemed an endangered craft by the Heritage Crafts Association. Daniel Blackham hears from those who are joining forces to tackle industry challenges head-on


he UK has a rich history of producing bespoke, handmade bicycles.


A stroll through the Bespoked show in


Manchester later this year, and you will see works of art that master framebuilders have spent hours labouring over.


The term ‘Steel is Real’ still triggers a wealth of emotion in many in the cycle industry who have memories of beautiful road, MTB and BMX frames from yesteryear. However, in 2024, the craft of frame building is becoming an endangered one. Last year, steel frame building was placed on the Heritage Crafts Association’s ‘Red List’ signifying that the likelihood of it surviving for future generations is reducing. To combat this, a select group of UK bicycle framebuilders are forming a united front to navigate


20 | March 2024


difficult industry waters. “In the early 80s when I started, there were probably about 180-200 framebuilders around the country,” explains Rob Wade of Swallow Bespoke Bicycles. “Now, we think we’ve got fewer than 50 framebuilders


altogether, and of those, probably under 20 that are full time.”


The concept of an association to unite and align independent framebuilders has been discussed before, but now seems like the right time to restart the conversation. “We always used to meet at Reynolds every year for a look around the factory, and have a chinwag, and it was muted then, so it’s been in the pipeline for some time,” says Wade.


“That fell by the wayside as a lot of the old framebuilders retired or closed doors.”


In the early 2010s, meetings had been arranged around www.bikebiz.com


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