After exhaustive searching, I've finally found a chrome platers that I think will do a fine job on my frame, and on Friday I duly handed it over for a couple of weeks. I had a very welcoming reception at Premier Plating Works in Walthamstow. All the outward signs are... Continue reading

After a week of concentrated effort, this is the result. A Columbus Spirit steel tubed bicycle frame made by me, inspired by Italy and the era when I started cycling. Last night I travelled back down the M40 with this gently cossetted in the back of the car, and reflected... Continue reading

Things came together today - in one long session of intense heat (and yet more intense concentration) my fledgling frame came into being. There's much left to be finished tomorrow, but I think we'll make it. It was a good moment, popping that wheel into the rear dropouts to find... Continue reading

The velocipede to end them all made great progress today. Early on I had the satisfaction of completing a triangle - one that begins to look like a bicycle may happen... It felt like a private triumph. Today was more relaxed, more involving, more satisfying. There was nothing completely new... Continue reading

This is the Jackfield Tile Museum, on the site of the former manufacturer of those familiar tiles so beloved of Victorian architects and celebrated as 'period features' in so many estate agent house particulars. And just behind this facade is Fusion: the craft centre that houses Bicycles by Design where... Continue reading

It's Monday morning. I've just driven for two and a half hours to spend the week with the tubes, castings and large file you see spread on a workbench in a room at Bicycles by Design in Ironbridge, Shropshire. I've come here to make my own bicycle. And in June... Continue reading