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Is this not just a Surly Karate Monkey with custom bag and paintjob?
you know i can't read bike numbers, they all ride the same
but yes the broarder point - i think it's difficult.
i do think largely people making people frames, either completely bespoke or a style sized to fit is a particularly mundane approach for both the artist and the consumer, additionally, amey is right, most frame makers cannot make a better riding bike than trek; to sound contreversial here, most frame makers can't make anything which looks distinquishable from one either.
i've aways apreciated the approach of say, a consumer spotting a frame maker they like due to their particular style, design language or ethos and working with them to develop a frame which allows them to express those things for a bike one would actually ride. i think the person who left breadwinner recently mentioned this, ira ryan, they just wanted to make bikes for people again, taking in a variety of influences from the persons life and proposing them a frame they think would fit that. to me that seems a reason for a custom bicycle frame.
but as you say this all costs time and money and quickly you get into the world of building boring bikes for boring bankers.
i'm not a business person, im a consumer, but if i would a frame builder with cnc and 3d modelling skills i'd design the frame makers bits and bobs or the consultancy on making them like lugs, yokes and dropouts to larger makers or smaller ones to bring most the money and then have 5 slots a year at a price you're comfortable with for one on one projects with bike clients.
I know the reason i went to ande is because i wanted his design language, the unfinished fillets the patchwork jumper of new, old, repurposed and the fuckit' diy punk vibe to it all. noone else could have made that bike in the frame builders i'd been looking at.
in the hypothetical, if i came to a person like you it would be because i could say "look, i cant ride any faster than 10mph on flat ground, i cant ride up gradients more than 9%, and i'll never ride anything longer than 80k, i want something to ride to and from the forrest and bosh out blue trails while feeling fun" and your brain, i assume would whir and oscilate between headtube angles, tyre sizes, wheel sizes, seat tube angles and stand over and you'd eventuay make something which would look relatively modern and proportionally perfect (something which is rarely achieved). with the added bonus of a low stand over while reaching my stack needs, without needing a tower of steerer
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Maj
Hulsroy
Is this not just a Surly Karate Monkey with custom bag and paintjob?
I am really trying to figure out how to make a living doing this. But as @carlosbrown is saying it comes from a place of love and interest. I have touched on this bricoleur idea in here before but basically it comes down to "my art" being making what I want/need with the means available to me + my styling... I guess. But how do you sell that? (I have tried youtube but I can't find the time).
In your case: you build up bikes you obtain with means available to you and you build with parts you have/can afford. That is what makes it awesome. It's both a process and a final piece and you are experimenting with it and it becomes what it becomes and then you change it to fit your new feelings/needs.
I could build you an ATB. And I would love to. But am I making you a frame you then adapt to your dream? Or do I help facilitate that dream? Because what I enjoy is the obstructions in helping make the decisions. It is deciding colours, materials and textures and doing the visualisations and adapting the design to obscure bike parts.
It is ALSO about trying to figure out how to make the bloody thing nice and straight. But that can't stand alone because I am not just a maker/craftsman in the contractor kind of way. I am also the narrator, designer and stylist. And so far I haven't met anyone fully commited to paying me to be that.
The narrative you make yourself and the bike any framebuilder can do. That seems to be the way for most custom bikes.
I am not interested in making crown jewels for rich people. On the other hand I need money to make a living. So here we are.