Crahift
From £280 labour, two to six weeks
Custom builds
A bike put together around what you actually do with it, from a frame you bring us or one we help you choose. We take on a handful a year, because doing it properly takes weeks rather than days.
What is included
A proper conversation about what the bike is for, how far, how loaded, and in what weather- A written spec listing every part and its price, sent to you before anything is ordered
- Frame prep, facing and chasing the bottom bracket shell, reaming the seat tube, fitting the headset
- Full assembly with cables routed and cut to length rather than coiled up under the bar tape
- Wheels built by hand where the build calls for it, charged separately as wheel building
- Bar tape or grips fitted, and a setup session with you actually sitting on the bike
- A shakedown ride by one of us before you ever see it
- One free follow up adjustment at six weeks, once the cables have settled and you have an opinion
What is not included
None of this is hidden. If your bike needs any of it, we will tell you and price it before we touch anything.
Parts, which on most builds are between two thirds and four fifths of the total- Paint, powder coating or any refinishing, though we can tell you who does it well
- Frame repair, alignment or cold setting
- Sourcing parts that are no longer made, we will say so in week one rather than string you along for a month
- Electronic groupset firmware problems beyond the initial setup
- Storing a half finished build for months while you decide, we will ask you to collect it
Turnaround
Two to six weeks, and the range is honest rather than cautious. A build from parts we can get in a week takes two. A build waiting on a particular hub, or a frame coming back from paint, takes six.
We will give you a real date once the spec is agreed and we know what is actually in stock, not before.
Where the money goes
On every build we have written up, labour is the smallest line. If you have a budget, tell us the whole number at the start. It is much easier to design a good bike to £900 than to design a £1,400 bike and then take parts off it.
Six we have written up in full
Rather than describe the process in the abstract, we have written out six real builds with the brief, the parts, why each one was chosen, the honest cost range and how long it took: the bare frame commuter, a touring bike for six weeks away, a cargo bike for the school run, a single speed on a student budget, a gravel bike built to a budget, and a 1980s road bike brought back.
The other services
