The "quintessential American frame builder"

[winjohn]

I enjoyed this video about the guy who makes curvey Retrotec bikes. Now I don't like the curvey look personally but each to their own and it's an interesting video which shows a lot of his working techniques and tooling.

One part I absolutely love though is his general philosophy, it takes about one week for him to make a frame but some bikes take longer than others, more curves take longer and he does make a straight tube bike which takes much less time.

So the presenter asks him how much each frame type costs.

"They all cost the same" he says! "I couldn't be bothered to work out how to charge different prices for each frames so I make more money on straight ones but I prefer making curved ones".

Nice!

 

[CTK]

Would love a Retrotec

 

[FMJ]

Was always ambivalent about his frames, but his multi-tool rocks.

 

[Betsy]

I enjoyed this video about the guy who makes curvey Retrotec bikes. Now I don't like the curvey look personally but each to their own and it's an interesting video which shows a lot of his working techniques and tooling.

One part I absolutely love though is his general philosophy, it takes about one week for him to make a frame but some bikes take longer than others, more curves take longer and he does make a straight tube bike which takes much less time.

So the presenter asks him how much each frame type costs.

"They all cost the same" he says! "I couldn't be bothered to work out how to charge different prices for each frames so I make more money on straight ones but I prefer making curved ones".

Nice!

The single curved frame retails for around £1300

The twin curved retails for around £1700

Lovely bikes! .. don't think i've ever seen one with a straight top tube.

 

[winjohn]

Damn they lied!

 

[Betsy]

Maybe if you buy one frame directly from Retrotec there is no price difference.. but retailers buying 20x frames, who stand to profit if they sell out have a different price point at purchase to reflect the additional work involved and to reflect multiple (expensive) units.

Everyone wants more for one's money so i'd assume most customers would opt for the twin given the same RRP, so they could struggle to sell the singles and the frames won't be SOR if they're sold outside the US. I assume the price difference at retail will be with full consent of Retrotec.

 

[MattiThundrrr]

Priced to order on the Retrotec site, no difference in price listed. Definitely not cheap...

https://ingliscycles.com/prices/