I am curious about what Bastion is doing with all this - 3D printed Ti lugs, carbon tubes? It seems like a really complicated way to make a bike, but maybe it’s good?
I gotta say, though, the FTW I have now is pretty great. Stout alu tubes + 30mm tires (on big non-flexy carbon rims) is a really nice feeling. Disc brakes are nice and all, but I mostly like them on road bikes for what they let me do with rims and tires.
It’s a pretty easy way to make (mostly) carbon frames with custom geometry, which otherwise requires custom molds or some other fuckery
which doesn’t make it better, really. Unless you get to F1 levels of bespoke production, carbon frames are better designed by real composite engineers with large scale manufacturing facilities at their disposal
I liked the cannondales with aluminum stays and carbon front end
still do actually
I think my next bike is gonna be custom aluminum
what about Crumpton and the like? Not worth it?
And for custom aluminum, I can’t say enough good things about the FTW I got built last winter. easy to deal with the shop, and it was done in like a month. Also $1700 for a frame is really seriously not bad.
Definitely not worth it IMO because:
Also in regards to the above comment on F1 bespoke production, my former employer wound up locked in a sponsorship contract where some frames had to be made in the UK. They were made by a motorsports/F1 composites company because that’s what was available. The frames had quality issues that would have easily been avoided using a Asian factory that we were familiar with.
As an aside IMO the best way to make actually good custom carbon and have them not be astronomically expensive would be to utilize 3D printing for one off tooling as opposed to making lugs like bastion is doing.
i get it, but it bums me out that this is how it is. i’ve had some folk theory that there would be cheaper and better custom carbon shops as time went by. apprentices would open their own shops, better supply deals would get set up, and so on.
This guy does custom frames with one off tooling. He started doing typical tube to tube but now uses 3D printing to make tooling like I was getting at. Not cheap but it’s the best way to do it that I know of.
the stuff coming out of Beverly, MA is of boat lineage but was an impressive operation and a top notch bike with a wide array of tuning options albeit not serving the masses
Anyone else remember those Hunter CX bikes with carbon seat tube/mast? I’d love to have one of those.
i have some Parlee forks, i think that guy came from boat racing. i dunno, i’m sure there are some cool frames out there getting built, but $5k is one hot potato, financially!
@featherduster the Beverly made tube-to-tube frames are the only custom carbon frames I would ever consider. @iwillbe Bob did start with carbon fiber in boat racing. Lots of options for molded plastic frames though. $5k gets you a roboshift carbon complete allroad bike.
custom though? The Parlee website gets a little vague on pricing and customization options
Hern is the man. He’s my go to for carbon repair. Always wanted to do a custom pair of bars from him.
The rex I got is a carbon/steel mix
Haven’t ridden it enough to comment but I like it and it’s mostly jewelry. Needs refinishing still
so has anyone here tried a carbon barstem? I’m curious about them, but not without some expert insight. $600 is a lot to bet on something being better than $230 of nice alloy bar and stem.
All I know is I just took delivery of the enve aero handlebars and I think I’m in love 
Not sure I could ever commit to a bar stem combo
what if it looked really cool though
I’ve tried some on short test rides, no noticeable difference compared to a traditional modern bar and stem for me. I hear some are ‘ride tuned’ and some are just silly light. Who knows, I want one of the Syncros Johnnie’s on my mtb because they look awesome.