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Bespoked Bristol: The UK Continental

Door Joe Hall • 23rd March 2012 04:30pm • Gepost in Events

Brunel's Old Station, a seemingly perfect venue for the UK's only handbuilt bike show. Now in its second year, the Bristol event is in the heart of a city with both a love of the bicycle and machined artistry (See Isambard Kingdom Brunel, for example). Rapha are proud to be part of this fantastic exhibition and also present a very exciting project for 2012, the UK Continental. The project will feature six of the UK's finest frame builders, each creating something very special.

Four of the bikes are on display at the show for the duration of the weekend. Rapha will be here to talk bikes and the art of road riding, so if you can venture to Bristol, we urge you to pay a visit. More on the show and the UK Continental soon.

The builders:

• Tom Donhou
• Ricky Feather
• Rourke Cycles
• Robin Mather
• Dave Yates
• Condor Cycles

See a trailer for the forthcoming Continental Australia film, Van Diemen's Land »

Opmerkingen

Jon Moss

23rd March 2012 05:43pm

Great to hear about the UK Continental - do come and say hello to East Yorkshire!

Eoin Corcoran

26th March 2012 01:13pm

I think it's great to have a good UK handmade bike show with added publicity from Rapha but the idea that some of these frame builders are either making their frames in the UK or that they offer any sort of 'bespoke' service is a bit far fetched.

Surprised the genuine UK bespoke frame builders don't kick up more of a fuss about who is invited to exhibit…

Mark Oliver

26th March 2012 04:33pm

Eoin - is this a complaint about Bespoke Bristol or the UK continental concept? If it is aimed at the builders on the UK Continental list, I think only Condor manufactures outside of the UK and their design team is based in the UK and they do custom builds as well.

Mike Pearson

26th March 2012 04:46pm

Eoin, from Bespoked's website:

"Bespoked Bristol is a UK based public event promoting the international talents of independent makers and designers of the bicycle world.

This is the place for the public, industry and press to meet independent makers and designers of everything bicycle."

So its scope is far wider than just UK custom framebuilders, although obviously it's great to give them as much publicity as possible.

James Fairbank

27th March 2012 07:35am

I assume that Eion's comment is directed at the show rather than our builders, we were keen to work with British builders for the UK Continental which is why Neil Manning -Condor's Production Director who used to work with TJ Quick- is making Condor's frame. None of the builders I spoke to over the weekend raised any objection to the choice of exhibitors.

Phil the organiser is quite relaxed about the mix and I assume some kind of critical mass is required to make the show financially viable & to fill that wonderful space. Personally I think that a UK-based show featuring such an array of genuine British design and building talent that also draws in -amongst others- Winter & Pegoretti is something to be celebrated.

Luke Muir

27th March 2012 10:12am

I had wondered when Rapha were going to champion some british builders. Nice selection of builders too. Can't wait to see all the results in detail.

James Fairbank

27th March 2012 11:32am

Glad you like the selection Luke, we tried to go with a combination of youth and experience & will look to add builders as the project evolves.

Luke Muir

27th March 2012 11:53am

Also, its nice to see Dave Yates involved. His frame building classes must have been a catalyst for the renaisance in frame building. I have been on one and it was an awesome week. Chapeau!

Stefan Rohner

27th March 2012 12:04pm

James, great work, congrats!

James Fairbank

27th March 2012 12:21pm

Thanks Stefan.

Luke, Dave is a common thread that runs through the project. Robin apprenticed with him at M. Steel & Ricky started building after seeing a demonstration by the man in question. Over 10,000 frames have passed through Dave's hands and he sub-contracted for some of the largest bike shops in the UK before they moved their production overseas. The frame he made for this project should be here this week, I'll pop some photos up when it's built.

neil manning

29th March 2012 07:29am

Condor are very excited to be part of the Rapha Continental project. We had our own in-house builders for many years and also sub-contracted out to master builders including Dave Yates. Personally I had 8 years working with Tommy Quick who taught me everything there is to know about frames from a practical side. I've been in the trade for 25 years now, the last 13 years with Condor where we have seen our frame production go from 250 a year to nearing 3,000. I still like to have everything controlled by ourselves from selection of materials including custom tube drawing to geometries, finish, decals. It is all designed by Condor. I am in Italy every month to keep an eye on production which is still done by hand and to keep my own hand in. We employ a factory of builders who would have otherwise gone to the wall when most of the top Italian marques moved production to the far east. We have always championed steel so it is great to be able to make a special frame for Rapha Continental. Approximately 10% of our production is custom which is why we think it is important to keep it as close to home as possible. I get asked a lot by other companies if steel is making a comeback, but as far as I am concerned it never went away.
I hope you like it when it's finished, was over there last week doing the finishing touches and now it is being painted.
Regards
Neil Manning
Production Director
Condor Cycles, London

James Fairbank

31st March 2012 07:09am

Can't wait to see it Neil, thanks for the comment.

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