Interesting article and beautiful frame!

[Lifelover]

Embrocation article about custom frames,,,,, (http://www.embrocationmagazine.com/online/customs)

Interesting self reflection about custom frames purchases. Not everyone in the industry will react well to it.

Ellis has a style as unique as Vanilla but a bit more upscale. One of both would fulfill my dreams.
http://www.embrocationmagazine.com/images/2700.jpg

[FlashUNC]

I think there's an undeniable allure to the "have at it" mindset, and I'm sure is no small part behind things like Vanilla's "Surprise Me" paint scheme on their SpeedVagens.

I tend to think if you're paying the kind of money custom frames cost these days that you, a layperson, shouldn't be mucking up the process for the professional and expert builder. I'd rather spend my time finding a builder I had confidence in and good communication with, then let him or her have at it with maybe some broad guidelines (I want a level top tube, and I tend to do XXX type of rides).

Of course, spending that kind of money, I think people feel the need to micromanage the process.

I know at least on the paint end, my next frame will definitely be finished with a "here's the budget for paint, surprise me" mandate.

[Jack Brunk]

Agreed to a point. I've had a lot of bikes built by great builders. I also think I know what I want my frame to do almost as well as the builder does. When talking to builders it's all about chemistry and knowledge. It takes two to tango.

[Ahneida Ride]

It's worth the trip to NAHBS just to experience Dave's work.
Ellis Cycles are both correct and impeccable.

[soul survivor]

With due respect, this piece is fluff -- someone writing about reaching nirvana by ceding control over the color of his custom bike. A bit much . . .

[jlwdm]

+1, but Dave does build beautiful bikes.

Jeff

[shiftyfixedgear]

Dave Wages is a super-talented and experienced builder.

That writer is a total loss. Horribly overwrought drivel and he couldn't pad it more if he worked at a pillow factory.

[akelman]

That bike is beyond gorgeous. That author, however, is peddling some ugly prose. It seems to me that there's a generation of would-be writers, people who grew up on Dave Eggers and David Foster Wallace, who think that language is their plaything. These people blogged their way through high school and college, and on balance, that they want nothing more than to write for a living is probably not a bad thing at all. Even better, I think, is that they're finding their way into writing about bicycles (at Embrocation) or design (at Metropolis) or food (at Gastronomica) or a million other topics at a million other places.

The problem, though, is that the many (the vast majority?) of them aren't as talented as the people who inspired them*. And I worry for these middling sorts. Do they have a back-up plan? Something to do with their lives after they realize -- or the market tells them in no uncertain terms -- that their writing is little more than a heartbreaking work of staggering crap? I hope so. Or, failing that, I hope they're independently wealthy.

* This is true of most of us, I suppose. Meaning, we're not as good as our heroes at whatever our heroes have inspired us to do. Well, at least it's true of me.

[Ken Robb]

Jeez Akelman, you're correct. The author would not have passed muster with my 8th grade English teacher who taught me never to use two words when one would convey a thought. Her red pencil would have needed two sharpenings just to mark his punctuation and grammatical errors too.

[Birddog]

Jeez Akelman, you're correct. The author would not have passed muster with my 8th grade English teacher who taught me never to use two words when one would convey a thought. Her red pencil would have needed two sharpenings just to mark his punctuation and grammatical errors too.

More is less!

[Dave Wages]

OUCH!, everyone's a critic! :rolleyes:

I enjoyed Chris' article, but I may be a bit biased. The whole experience he describes is clearly not the typical way I work with a customer on their custom frame, but it is an interesting approach, and I enjoyed the process. I will admit, having the customer turn the whole process over to me can be a bit daunting, and there needs to be a high level of trust between both parties in a case like this. Any custom builder's worst nightmare would be a finished frame or bike in the customer's hands that isn't what they wanted.

What I think the article boils down to for me is this, find a builder that builds what you like, and whose style you identify with, and then let them combine your specs with their vision. Agreed?

Cheers,
Dave

[SamIAm]

Interesting response to the article in terms of form over content. I guess I just read past the clutter and pulled out what I already knew, Dave Wages is a stud frame builder. :)

I have done the custom thing a number of times and not once have I offered anything other than the basic type of bike I wanted and any fender/rack/tire clearance requirements and I think this way works best.

But I have only handed over aesthetic control of the final product on 3 occassions, once to Peter Weigle, once to Joe Bell and once via proxy to Dave Wages. And they nailed it!

I find it hard to believe that Dave's wait list is still reasonable. I predict it won't be one day.