Introduction

So why build a bicycle frame? I choose to build a bicycle frame in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of my energies and skills, because that challenge is one that I am willing to accept, one I am unwilling to postpone, and one which I intend to win, and the others, too.

Lofty tasks require lofty retoric.

To start with let me make it clear that building one's own frame (or at least the first one) is not a sound financial investment. A recent purchase of a custom steel Mercian in Reynolds 853 hand crafted by a man who has spent 20 years honing his skills cost £950.00. The tubing and lugs for my machine have cost me £240.00, the basic tooling upwards of £1000.00, ignoring the equipment that i aready have access to. So unless you are committed to the craft save yourself the time, money and fear of impalement by getting a prefessional to do it for you.

So why am i attempting this? I am attempting this becasue i feel emasculated by my computer, when was the last time i crafted something with my bare hands and proudly proclamed "I built this". Instead i choose to type my requirements into a search bar and allow mathematical algorithms to locate someone else to do it for me. In short this project is a statement of intent to reclaim the use of my cerebellum and direct my hands to master long forgotten skills and produce the purest of machines; The Bicycle.

Over the next few weeks i will be blogging on the projects progress...