John here. I got linked to this quick opinion piece via La Marche Bike Co’s Instagram penned by Clandestine regarding Bespoked…
The article is a quick read and is a worth while discussion. Here’s an excerpt that paraphrases the gist:
“It’s always the elephant in the room at these shows, but it hung heavy in the air in Manchester. It came up with most every maker I talked to. Maybe only 50% of the exhibitors were framebuilders at this years show. Of those, there were only a few of us who build bikes full time. Of those remaining builders, many were exhibiting for the first time, while dozens of builders who’d exhibited at previous shows had gone, closed up and moved onto more financially stable things. Even established builders making wildly exciting, technically superb work are struggling to make a basic living selling bikes for less than many companies’ mass produced bikes.”
…but If I’m being honest, this applies to every “handmade” bike show these days. Even at MADE Australia, less than half of the exhibitors were making bikes in Australia. This is partly due to the number of builders in Australia in general. Now, I know I penned an article about (most) all bikes being handmade and that’s true, but as Clandestine points out:
“I’m sure I’ll catch a lot of flak for this: “All bikes are handmade!” But we all know what we mean when we say handmade bikes, and importing from overseas factories ain’t that. You can tell what handmade is when all the tiny companies and one person makers are super keen to tell you where they’re based, how their local riding changes their building approach, what tools or processes they use. You can tell by all the proud signs, like on Wizard Works’ stand “MADE IN LONDON”, that it is a product of localism, of self-actualisation: the people exhibiting the stuff, made the stuff. A production line, whether it’s in West London like Brompton, or in Taiwan like Surly, is quite a different thing compared to a builder in a workshop. Not a bad thing, to be clear, but a different thing. So in this climate of massive financial insecurity for the UK handbuilt scene, mass produced imported goods companies showed their wares and captured a certain amount of the precious media spotlight and the glow of association with the handmade.”
All this to say, now’s a good time to support a framebuilder if you’ve been eyeing a new bike. La Marche or Clandestine would be great brands to support, for example.
The bike industry is struggling. We just had a local bike shop in Santa Fe shut its doors. Hell, even our team here at The Radavist could use all the help we can get right now.
I wanted to thank Clandestine for opening the conversation to this and penning a short but sweet perspective. Thank you.
What do you think? Should “handmade” shows be for framebuilders only?
