WORKSHOP
the Bespoked Show to discuss possibly working together as a buying group, as well as looking at a training system or an agreed amount of standards, but that didn’t get off the ground for various reasons.
“Here we are again, with the industry in a small crisis which I’m sure we will come through,” says Wade. “This time it’s really focused down on a very small number of framebuilders who are doing it seriously. “We want to find a support group that could promote to the public a better understanding of what framebuilders do and also support those that are thinking ‘what are we doing now?’.”
Becoming Red Listed
The Heritage Crafts Association has a consultation process every two years where it asks people about the position of a craft and how many practitioners there are. Steel frame building was initially ‘Red Listed’ in 2019, but was removed in 2021.
“When it first went on in 2019, we were met with a bit of pushback,” explains Mary Lewis, endangered crafts manager at the Heritage Crafts Association. “There were quite a lot of people going through the Bicycle Academy, making one or two frames, and then
setting up a small business. So we had a bit of pushback from people saying, ‘well actually there’s loads more framemakers’.
“By the time we got to 2023, and was post Covid, quite a lot of those had fallen by the wayside or gone off and done other things. We were back to a situation where we had those core makers still there, but all the others had drifted off.”
The current situation is a state of concern. There is a worrying trajectory and the pipeline of up-and-coming framebuilders isn’t where it needs to be. “It’s not just numbers that we assess on,” says Lewis. “We look at what avenue it is going down. Is it rising or is it declining? Are we seeing young makers coming through training pathways?
“It might not be that we’ve got a crisis at this minute, but we will certainly have a crisis in 10 years if we don’t have those younger ones coming in. The high end skills will not be available.”
A significant hurdle is onboarding new talent to learn those artisanal skills needed to make a high end bicycle frame.
Many of these businesses have enough work to keep staff ticking over, but it is very difficult to facilitate a trainee.
www.bikebiz.com
Marchs 2024 | 21
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