Custom Stainless Road Bike

Just one point on cost, when everyone says that £1,800 is a lot. Is that's actually a high price for a XCR/953 custom frame?

[genuine question - I haven't checked other builders prices]

Precisely this. As stated up thread, the Indy Fab Xcr is in fact a bit less than I thought - £2995 - without any extras though, such as internal routing.

rourke is 1650-1850 with a fork

'From' £1650. Without any extras, hand built but not custom and also, this is with 953, not Xcr.

Could look around velocipedesalon see if there are any non london based masters of framebuilding you like the look of

Have done pretty extensive research UK based frame builders all ready. Not really overwhelmed by anyone's work and to be honest, I'm not really interested in supporting well established builders who've been around for years. I'd definitely want it to be one of the younger, newer guys such as Tom Donhou, Jake Rusby, Saffron or Feather.

Just had a look- Rourke's site is shit!

That's hand built, not custom- there is a difference, although obviously not a huge one if your goals are met by the hand built frame.

Getting that Rourke frame drilled for Di2, 44mm head tube and an extended head tube would see the costs escalate pretty rapidly

And again, this. As I said up thread, Jake is really keen to just get building so he said he'd incorporate all extras into the cost of the frame - even if I wanted to get disc brake bosses, internal routing, Di2 drillings, tapered head tube and also a fucking fancy paint.