Isen workshop: adventures in batch production (or not...)

For custom finishing, I've worked on painting hundreds of bikes by bespoke frame builders and been involved in their projects to some extent...

For what it's worth, I've no bad word to say about Isen/Talbot/Caren/Matt and my experiences with them and their customers have only ever been positive. I did an ISEN last year for a repeat customer and they were stoked with the bike.

Speaking very generally, they all use the same steel, and they all do kinda the same thing of sticking nine pipes together and calling it a bike. They're all adaptable in terms of building to your spec, as you would imagine. The things that make them different really is their style, both as builders and as businesses, and the flourishes that make their bikes unique to them.

My advice would be to contact a few with the same query, find out what their lead times and estimated costs are and go with the one you like the most!

If getting a bike sooner was the plan, Stayer would be the option I'd likely take if I were choosing today but that's based on seeing that recently, they posted about having a small run of frames in stock and ready to go.

From a customer experience perspective, every person I've painted an August for has sung their praises, and I personally only have pleasant things to say about Gavin and Amy.

I'd say the same of Tom at Hessonlabs but sadly he's not building at the moment. Very likeable human.

Quirk and Saffron and Spoon are top to work with.

Donhou customers speak highly of their experiences with Tom.

I very much have enjoyed working with Stolen, based in Paris, and Aloueta, who are also in France. I'm not sure how this would translate in terms of import costs and such.

I have seen a few Clandestine frames and I love those builds.

I like Toby Toad too.

That would be my personal shortlist, factoring both for the bikes and my professional interactions with the builders.

There are a handful of other lesser-known builders I could recommend too if you're interested... there's a potential for a cheaper bike based on them not having such an established name yet but I think perhaps one key selling point of those named here would be the experience they have in frame building, based on the numbers they've got under their belts already.