A lot of the OTP bikes are designed for a purpose. If you are sponsored by Charge bikes, then you ride a Charge bike that they will most probably give you for free. I think the seat height, crank lenth, bar size, and stem size give you enough variables to be able to make it fit you fine.
If you look at BMX's then you'll see that maybe 0.5% of riders have custom frames because there are enough frames out there that provide the right ride for you. Almost every BMX frame you can buy will come in a range of sizes that vary upto 3" in difference. Surely, with the amount of road/track frames out there, there is one that fits you well enough that you don't need to have a custom one made.
IMO the reason more people don't have custom frames is because of $$$. I know I can't afford it, but would I really notice the difference if I did? I ride my Peugeot conversion and as soon as I try somebody else's OTP it feels weird, not because it isn't custom, but because it is a completely different bike.
If I bought an OTP Fuji Track tomorrow I could then customise it. This would entail buying different parts to replace the standard ones. This would be custom to me because I have selected what I want and put it together. Almost nothing is 'original' anymore, you just make a new mix/combination of things to make a new whole.
Even OCC custom choppers use standard frames half the time, does this mean they're not making custom bikes half the time?
I really like the idea of having a completely custom bike where every part has been made by some bloke in a shed in Bedfordshire with all his love and full attention going into every single part, but not many people can afford this and if they could it would be seen as a complete waste of money when there are so many parts you don't need to have custom made. This raises another question:
If you want to call you bike 'custom' do you need to have every single part custom made for you or is it OK to just have the frame custom made and then add OTP parts onto it?
I personally really like certain frames I see and would then just build onto that to get a bike that I want. This also works in favour of my lesser money issue. It means that I can buy an OTP bike that I can ride from the moment I buy it and can slowly change parts as I can afford them.
A lot of the OTP bikes are designed for a purpose. If you are sponsored by Charge bikes, then you ride a Charge bike that they will most probably give you for free. I think the seat height, crank lenth, bar size, and stem size give you enough variables to be able to make it fit you fine.
If you look at BMX's then you'll see that maybe 0.5% of riders have custom frames because there are enough frames out there that provide the right ride for you. Almost every BMX frame you can buy will come in a range of sizes that vary upto 3" in difference. Surely, with the amount of road/track frames out there, there is one that fits you well enough that you don't need to have a custom one made.
IMO the reason more people don't have custom frames is because of $$$. I know I can't afford it, but would I really notice the difference if I did? I ride my Peugeot conversion and as soon as I try somebody else's OTP it feels weird, not because it isn't custom, but because it is a completely different bike.
If I bought an OTP Fuji Track tomorrow I could then customise it. This would entail buying different parts to replace the standard ones. This would be custom to me because I have selected what I want and put it together. Almost nothing is 'original' anymore, you just make a new mix/combination of things to make a new whole.
Even OCC custom choppers use standard frames half the time, does this mean they're not making custom bikes half the time?
I really like the idea of having a completely custom bike where every part has been made by some bloke in a shed in Bedfordshire with all his love and full attention going into every single part, but not many people can afford this and if they could it would be seen as a complete waste of money when there are so many parts you don't need to have custom made. This raises another question:
If you want to call you bike 'custom' do you need to have every single part custom made for you or is it OK to just have the frame custom made and then add OTP parts onto it?
I personally really like certain frames I see and would then just build onto that to get a bike that I want. This also works in favour of my lesser money issue. It means that I can buy an OTP bike that I can ride from the moment I buy it and can slowly change parts as I can afford them.