Crahift
The bare frame commuter
A 1990s frame out of a loft, built into something that does seven miles a day in the wet and needs almost nothing doing to it.
One chainring, dynamo lighting, hand built front wheel.
- Cost
- £740 to £870
- Time
- Three weeks
Builds
Six bikes, written out in full
We take on a handful of custom builds a year. These are six of them, with the brief we were given, the parts we chose and why, what it honestly cost, and how long it actually took including the weeks we spent waiting.
The costs are ranges because parts prices move. Nothing here is rounded down to look better.
The six builds
A touring bike for six weeks away
Six weeks and 2,000 miles carrying everything, built around one rule: every part had to be fixable at the side of a road.
Friction shifting, rim brakes, 36 spoke wheels, spare spokes taped to the frame.
- Cost
- £1,340 to £1,520
- Time
- Five weeks
A cargo bike for the school run
Two children, a hill, no car. The heaviest thing we have built and the only one where we argued for a week before ordering.
Hydraulic disc front, drum rear, hub gears, high tension small wheels.
- Cost
- £1,980 to £2,240
- Time
- Six weeks
A single speed on a student budget
Three hundred and fifty pounds, all in. The owner's damaged wheels trued and reused, and one thing we refused to leave off.
Reused wheels, second hand frame, two brakes, new wearing parts.
- Cost
- £280 to £330
- Time
- Nine days
A gravel bike built to a budget
The build where our main job was talking the owner out of the expensive thing and moving the money somewhere they would feel it.
Stock wheels not custom, 42mm tubeless tyres, mechanical discs.
- Cost
- £860 to £1,000
- Time
- Four weeks
A 1980s road bike brought back
The owner's father's bike out of a garage after twenty years. We did about half of what they asked for, and it cost half what they expected.
Original paint kept, five speed friction shifting kept, everything perished replaced.
- Cost
- £470 to £590
- Time
- Four weeks
What these have in common
How we approach a build
Read enough of these and a pattern shows up, because we work the same way every time.
The brief decides everything
The touring bike and the gravel bike are both drop bar bikes with wide tyres, and almost nothing else about them is the same. One was built for a rider who needed to fix it in a lay by. The other for a rider doing thirty miles on a Sunday. Same category, completely different bikes.
We will talk you out of things
We talked the gravel rider out of hand built wheels and the road bike owner out of a respray. Both saved money and both ended up with a better bike for what they actually do. If we think you are about to spend money in the wrong place, we will say so before we take it.
Tell us the whole budget
Every build here came in at or under the number we were given at the start, and that is only possible because we knew the number. The single speed was £350 and it worked because we designed to £350 from the first conversation.
Reusing what you have is the biggest lever
Wheels, frames, seatposts, bars. On the student build reusing a damaged wheelset saved more than every other decision combined. Bring us the box of old parts, even the ones you think are scrap.
The timeline is mostly waiting
Look at the timings and the bench time is rarely more than a week. The rest is frames, racks and freewheels in transit. We tell you which weeks are work and which are waiting, so you know whether a delay is ours.
Where to go next
Service
Service
Contact
How custom builds work
What is included, what is not, and what our labour costs.
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Service
Hand built wheels
When they are worth it, and when we will tell you they are not.
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Contact
Start a conversation
Tell us the brief and the budget, and we will tell you honestly what is possible.
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