Sent a deposit on a custom Ti frame today!

NHAero · #1 01-04-2021, 03:04 PM

After reading some great threads on here, and looking at web sites, and finally narrowing it down and speaking with three builders, I sent my deposit today to Carl Strong. All three - Bingham, Strong, and Caletti - are immensely capable and have queue lengths of 4-8 months. Firefly is now 21 months and that felt like too much. They are very respectful of each other as well. Carl especially couldn't say enough about his appreciation about the other two builders' work and how they were such good people.

I've been measuring my current bikes and fooling around with BikeCad and speaking with some of you who have bikes that are similar to what I'm looking for. I'm headed for a 650b all road that has a road geo, vs. a gravel bike, similar to my old Bob Jackson which BITD we rode on pavement or dirt depending on what appeared in front of us :-)

Thanks much to all of you who've helped me get this far. I'm sure I'll have a lot more questions as the project unfolds. I sure hope we can ride D2R2 together this year, and that I have the bike by then!

AngryScientist · #2 01-04-2021, 03:05 PM

excellent. looking forward to the journey with you!

tuscanyswe · #3 01-04-2021, 03:11 PM

Congrats going to be sweet!

AngryScientist · #4 01-04-2021, 03:12 PM

By the way, i wonder how many bikes FireFly knocks out in a year?

I'm in agreement that it would be hard for me to sign on to a two year wait list, that just sounds difficult. Good for them for generating enough interest to keep demand for their product that high. It's impressive these days for sure.

Bob Ross · #5 01-04-2021, 03:25 PM

Congrats OP! Doing business with Carl is one of the most gratifying commercial experiences I can think of: You always know the status of your order, what you're paying for, that you're getting an excellent value, and (mostly) that your finished product will be crafted by one of the best in the business and who stands behind his work 100%.

572cv · #6 01-04-2021, 03:42 PM

Very cool, Marc. A custom frame by a skilled builder is a great experience, Ti is a great material, especially for your location. Looking forward to seeing how it turns out. Maybe in a more normal world, you'll be able to bring it north if you come up this way!

C40_guy · #7 01-04-2021, 03:48 PM

Yay!

NHAero · #8 01-04-2021, 04:06 PM

Thanks! One of my fondest hopes is to be knocking around on the NH/VT roads again that I rode in the 35 years of living up there! Semi-retirement will provide the time to do that (I hope - I seem to be pretty busy!)

Quote:

Originally Posted by 572cv

Very cool, Marc. A custom frame by a skilled builder is a great experience, Ti is a great material, especially for your location. Looking forward to seeing how it turns out. Maybe in a more normal world, you'll be able to bring it north if you come up this way!

jpritchet74 · #9 01-04-2021, 04:08 PM

Keep us posted on the progress!

XXtwindad · #10 01-04-2021, 04:14 PM

What’s the factor that tipped things in Carl’s favor? I’m sure it will be a great decision. A real legend in the industry, and seems like a super nice guy to boot.

PS ... I’ve been exploring a whole bunch of gravel routes around the southern tip of the Green Mountains using Brattleboro as a home base. (What a cool town. Great breweries.) Roughly between Somerset and Jamaica.

Kirk007 · #11 01-04-2021, 04:30 PM

Congrats! Look forward to seeing it down the road!

NHAero · #12 01-04-2021, 04:52 PM

It felt impossible to make a poor choice amongst those three people. I have a hard time expressing how I made the decision, frankly. Maybe I woulda made a different one tomorrow, but I wanted to get into the queue today!

The number of folks doing great work is impressive for those of us out there looking.

Quote:

Originally Posted by XXtwindad

What’s the factor that tipped things in Carl’s favor? I’m sure it will be a great decision. A real legend in the industry, and seems like a super nice guy to boot.

PS ... I’ve been exploring a whole bunch of gravel routes around the southern tip of the Green Mountains using Brattleboro as a home base. (What a cool town. Great breweries.) Roughly between Somerset and Jamaica.

Tommasini53 · #13 01-04-2021, 05:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bob Ross

Congrats OP! Doing business with Carl is one of the most gratifying commercial experiences I can think of: You always know the status of your order, what you're paying for, that you're getting an excellent value, and (mostly) that your finished product will be crafted by one of the best in the business and who stands behind his work 100%.

+1

tv_vt · #14 01-04-2021, 05:40 PM

Cool! I love my custom Bingham-built Hampsten ti Gran Paradiso. I'm sure a Strong will be equally fantastic.

Coffee Rider · #15 01-04-2021, 05:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AngryScientist

By the way, i wonder how many bikes FireFly knocks out in a year?

I'm in agreement that it would be hard for me to sign on to a two year wait list, that just sounds difficult. Good for them for generating enough interest to keep demand for their product that high. It's impressive these days for sure.

If you are already bike sufficient and really want something particular, it's not so bad. It also gives you time to brace yourself for what it will cost in addition to giving you lots of time to overthink everything.