Crisp Titanium

 
However, as Darren is quick to point out being able to craft such frames is not as simple as spending all day in the workshop, welding torch in hand. “There is a fine line between making a business work, finding a model that works that gives me the satisfaction as a builder and gives me the freedom to not be under such a strain that I start losing creativity.
 
“The problem with expanding is that as the amount of work you have increases, the amount of creativity and passion you have that you can put in lessens because you just don’t have the time. Your innovation become depleted with the stress.”
 
The amount of creativity that can be put into each frame is also to a certain extent dependent upon the customer needs and current trends in cycle design as new standards gain wider recognition. While Darren has built with BB30 bottom bracket shells he no longer uses them, preferring instead to build with pressfit bottom brackets as he feels they are a more viable solution.
 

 
Similarly the current move toward tapered steerer tubes is something he does not feel is particularly necessary for most riders, but he also acknowledges the need to find a balance between need and desire. “Most of the projects I work on don’t need any of the latest design trends, but I’m also fulfilling the desires of a customer who has come to me and knows what I can do. Standards come and go at the moment, and if I build a frame I want it to still be viable in 20 years’ time. I sometimes have to sit the client down and educate them about what I do and what they can expect and what they’ll receive when we finish a project together. It’s a constant learning process, and as a frame builder you have to make mistakes when you start out and know how to learn from them. At the beginning I wanted to be a Pegoretti or a Colnago, and I learnt from their experience but I had to make my own mistakes. It’s informed me as a builder, about what works and what doesn’t, about how my product can evolve.”
 
It is how he uses the knowledge he has gained that marks Darren out. His philosophy about building frames has been concentrated and refined over the years, and at the same time shaped by the dominance of cycling in Italy. “One of the challenges of build a Ti frame is to make a frame that is not boisterous, but that is elegant and can ride next to a Pinnarello or whatever the bike is in the group, and that allows the rider to enjoy what a bicycle is. The rider shouldn’t have to answer questions, the bike should answer the questions. And so I’m the one holding the torch now for Italian artisan style frame building; a single guy fabricating something by hand and trying to put something into it, and that’s why customer come and seek me out. A lot of them have tried carbon fibre and all the other trends and they come back to more traditional ideas.”
 

 
“I know the people who buy my frames are buying them for a specific reason. They’re not buying just to keep up with the latest marketing trends. They are buying into a creative philosophy, an artistic philosophy, and a cycling philosophy, and they come to me with lots of experience and having done a lot of research about what they want. We can then sit down and talk about it so that the finished product is built by us together. That discussion is the part that adds the most value to the project, you can’t get that if you just go to a store and buy a bicycle, no matter how exclusive it might be.”
 
It is this desire by riders for a bicycle that is more than the sum of its parts that drives the custom frame building industry and that is seeing an increasing number of new builders taking on the challenge of crafting unique frames, as could be seen at the recent Bespoked Handmade Bicycle Show in London, and Darren is ready and willing to offer advice to anyone who wants to take up the welding torch.
 
“If you have the means of supporting yourself don’t just jump into it. The passion that drives you to start is going to have to drive you to the finish. When you start out with grand ideas of frame building you have to temper that with the knowledge it takes a lot of hard work. I can’t begin to explain how much work. If you’re a young guy and you don’t have family or commitments then just do it. You only live once and that’s the best time to try it before life ties you down.
 

 
“If you can work on it and figure it out before you try and make a living from it that’s the way to go. My first frame broke, and when things like that happen you have to learn from the experience. I knew I couldn’t build frames for other people until I could build one for myself that didn’t break. You have to be prepared to make sacrifices. The important thing is to do a business plan. You’re not just building a bike frame, you’re building a future. You have to build a service for your product 20 years down the line. How many frames a month can you build and be able to survive on? It’s a business and the first rule of business is you have to make money. The reality of my life today is that I’m not just welding but also doing the work that makes the business a business and keeps it a success; things that people don’t even begin to think about…”
 
Yet despite how this last comment may come across there is no denying how passionate Darren is about custom frame building. Not only was he excited to be involved with the Brooks frame builder program about which he said, “I’m almost ashamed to be here when I think of the frame builders they could invite to come and do things like this,” but he was also attending Bespoked and plans to exhibit at the 2015 event to take a closer look at the ideas and designs being developed by new builders and to catch up with old friends in the business.
 
If he does make Bespoked in 2015 with his own builds, it will give many more people the opportunity to get close to some of the most exciting and innovative titanium road frames currently being made in Europe.
 
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Crisp Titanium
 
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