Staff

Arregui Velazquez Head of Design and Frame-building Area

Alexey Alexandrov Teacher. Design and Frame-building Area

Duration: 10 Days (80 hours) Number of students: 1 to 6 Price: 3350 € Materials: 700 €

If you want to acquire a more comprehensive and extensive knowledge of bike-design and frame-building, this 10-days course offers you the possibility to build two bespoke bikes at our workshop. After the completion of this course, the students will have gained a solid understanding and valuable hands-on experience to allow them continue practising improving their frame-building skills independently.

 This course offers an advanced knowledge of bike-design and frame-building (either for custom or production bikes) paying particular attention to the most relevant aspects of the process: from the BikeCad design, tubing selection, different brazing techniques, workshop tools to the paint design and final bike assembly. There is no requirement of any previous knowledge or particular skills for taking up this course, you only need to have a good disposition to learn and do some work with your hands.

The course is designed to provide students with an advanced knowledge and the essential manual skills involved in frame-building but also (what we believe it’s more relevant) the capacity to learn and improve on your own once completed. During this course we cover different areas included in other courses like the Introductory Course to Bike-Design and Frame-Building, Oxy-Acetylene Welding or Bicycle Fork Construction. 

During this course the student undertakes the design and construction of two bespoke frames and one steel fork. For the second frame, the student is expected to carry out most of the work by its own initiative while under supervision; in this way we ensure that the knowledge and skills learnt on the first week are properly assimilated and put into practice during the construction of the second frame, which can also include more-advanced features like curved and shaped tubes.

 As in the case of DCB-I, all students who pursue this course are offered the possibility to hire one the working spaces at the workshop to carry on further projects under supervision.

• Introduction of Bike Design: the most relevant parameters for bike-design, the cyclist position on the bike, the cyclist anatomical dimensions.
• Selection of frame materials and Bike Components.
• Definition and Examination of the material: The tubing catalogues of the different manufacturers Columbus, Reynolds and Dedacciai. Selecting the appropriate tubes for your frame. 
• Frame-building Basics: tube cutting and mittering, preparation, jig pre-assembly and frame tacking
• Frame alignment checking: different techniques for frame alignment and industry tolerances 
• Frame welding: different brazing techniques and working welding temperatures. Frame distortion and the effects of brazing temperatures.
• Frame Facing and Prepping before painting. 
• Frame Painting: Overview of different pain techniques and tips for paint designs.
• Course Recap and Useful Information about for sourcing frame tubes, welding equipment and consumables, workshop tools, etc…
• Basic tools and Recommendations to create your own frame-building workshop.