[Davide]

I am very vaguely started to think about a new frame. I have being riding Ibis since 2005 (I am now on a HD3) but I realize how tired I am of the look of current MTB bikes. They all have given up on a pure triangle frame to make room for a water bottle at the down tube, resulting in a "protuberance" that goes straight out from the bottom bracket before rising toward the head tube ... and I miss the svelte look of a straight triangle.

So question is: who makes a custom carbon frame bike nowadays? Caveat: It has to be a DW suspension (no Horst).

 

[OldHouseMan]

Atherton Bikes. When it was Robot they were offering custom, not sure if they will offer custom under the Atherton name. It does have DW suspension and a more traditional front triangle.

 

[Jayem]

Here's how you make a custom carbon fiber frame:

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=2286908438071607

 

[Tom Howard]

For it to be true DW you would have to speak to Atherton, to see if they plan on doing custom frames, once they get their operation going. failing that you would have to get in touch with Dave Weagle, as its his IP, or someone who already licenses it from him (Atherton do)

If you want to go full, from scratch, custom. https://carbonwasp.com (I haven't bought frame, but i have seen their work, and they are building m some cranks for a pinion 'box)

 

[Lone Rager]

FWIW: Atherton bikes are hybrid Ti CF frames...lots of printed Ti connected by straight CF tubes. They still have that belly in front of the BB, but perhaps not as much as some other bikes. It looks like that belly exists to make room for the lower shock attachment. I think the best chance of finding a design without that belly might be to look at traditional Ti or steel frames.

 

[scottzg]

Caveat: It has to be a DW suspension (no Horst).

Horst link has gotten a lot better since specialized lost their stranglehold over the design.

 

[Davide]

Horst link has gotten a lot better since specialized lost their stranglehold over the design.

Don't really see why. Bike makers have been using Horst links for ever, before, during and after the Specialized patent rights expired. I owned the original Horst, GT, Turner and I bought a Horst link two years ago. It had all the problems that I always found with a Horst link bike ... I sold it quickly.

 

[Jayem]

This is true to some extent, we see some more euro brands being sold in the US with horst link and a few additional home-grown US based ones too, but we've also finally seen more acceptance of the other designs that work better, such as split-pivots, single-pivots with linkage, other designs that maintain a decent amount of AS or a flat curve until fairly deep in the travel, like Yeti, Intense, SC, Evil, etc.

I think there's been a general trend at getting to a flatter AS curve for horst link bikes, but it's very gradual and very few are actually implementing it in a way that could be said to be significantly better. Many just jack up the starting AS crazy high, retaining the steep falling curve which still makes them pedal like mush uphill in tech. Some of the companies, like Specialized, seem to be going backwards with their newest designs (stumpjumper), although they at least get credit for abandoning it for the Epic.