List of British frame manufacturers / UK frame builders

Got no contact details but @Alf0nse is right. Dammit's statement is about a different builder entirely.

Thanks for clarifying, i'll keep asking around.

Is there a reason why Argos framesets are now £2995 (they were £1800 a couple of months ago I think)? Do they just not want anymore work?

I think they want the work, they just don't want to do it for peanuts. Look where that got Bob Jackson Cycles!

I don't really know the going rate for frames at the moment, but £3k sounds quite a lot? E.g. Mercian's are ~£1400. BJ were £600 which is clearly too cheap...

Actually, maybe I'm just out of the loop, it looks like some of Mercian's frames are also around £3k. Just shows how cheap BJ were!

If you think about...

Wages
Building Overheads
Material Costs
New tooling for the ever expanding range of standards
Wear and tear on existing tooling
Insurances
Rental from BOC or whatever gas supplier
I'm sure there is more that I haven't thought of, and take into account that all of these things are getting more expensive, none are getting cheaper, staff I assume want pay-rises in line with the rate of inflation all on top of the amount of man-hours it actually takes to build a frame and I wouldn't say 3£k is extortionate. I think a lot of people forget about all these costs that aren't obvious and just see the price of a tube set and lugs and wonder why a completed frame is 5x the cost of the raw materials.

Consider carbon frames and forks that are mass produced in Asia where I assume the overheads and costs are lower, surely if they weren't they would be making them in Europe or the UK, they still sell for £3k in certain situations, with a lot less labour in them and no custom options.

IMO that makes the steel frame better value for money. Thats just my view for whatever that's worth.

Not sure if this is the right place to post and update the list in the OP so I apologise in advance and ask the mods to delete/move/update accordingly as they see fit. I wanted to add few builders which I noticed aren't mentioned in the forum while doing a search:

Colossi - https://www.colossiv5.com
Wyndy Milla - https://www.wyndymilla.com
Hartley Cycles - http://www.hartleycycles.com

I can't share opinions on them though because I've never being in contact neither am I affiliated.

Karen hartley works with talbot frames now she fixed mine . They are isen now.

Does she? That explains why the Talbot frameworks website is offline then.

Caren and Matt ( Talbot ) work together at Isen Frameworks, and while Matt has stopped making Talbots, Hartley Cycles is still going

I believe a new website is currently under construction https://www.isenworkshop.com/

I remember Matt, in fact, I even when to visit him long time ago when I was dreaming of a custom framework which then never happened because life sometimes sucks... great to know they work together I really like their work.

Adding this conversation here for visibility.

Jon Aston of Chickens Frame Emporium in Brighton recently replaced a chainstay in a 753 frame for me and did a great job, also a thoroughly nice and very knowledgeable guy.

Did a search and couldn't see him on here so thought I'd add:

http://www.chickensframeemporium.co.uk/

doh, just seen the spreadsheet.
at least he gets a plug, and the vid on his website just makes me want to go out and ride

Spreadsheet? I think I missed that one too.

Anyone had experience with Enigma at all? Thinking my new bike should be a bit more of a forever bike instead of an off the rack jobby

Has anyone had any experience with Aske bikes?

Just saw your post from 10 months ago.... I heard Kevin Winter is back at Woodrup's a while ago. think he has an Insta account. Not sure about carbon.

👍

Yes. He realigned a frame and a separate set of forks for me where the drop outs were out of alignment. Nice guy, and interesting - founder of the Hotta brand from back in the day which he's bought back the rights to.

His frames look good too, though I haven't ridden one.