Kestrel FrameworksMarrowdale · Yorkshire · Est. 2011

One builder.One torch.Twenty-two frames a year.

Every Kestrel starts as this sheet: your height, your inseam, the roads you mean to ride, and a pencil. The steel comes later.

Schedule of dimensions — mm

Sheet 2 — Take your measure

  1. All dimensions in millimetres unless stated.
  2. Do not scale. If in doubt, ask Wren.
  3. Drawn for one rider. It will not fit your brother.
  4. Touch any tube for its specification.
Sheet 2 of 4

Measure

Slide the four rules. The frame is recalculated and re-drafted as you go: seat tube from your inseam, top tube from your trunk and reach, angles and stays from the riding you intend. Every change is entered in the revisions box.

Rider height
Inseam
Reach preference
Intended use

Standover mm · Clearance mm

Derived geometry
Revisions
RevDescriptionBy
Sheet 3 of 4

Joinery

ABC
123

Detail A — Head lug

Top tube to head tube · silver brazed
  1. 1
    Feather window, pierced by hand.It lets me watch the silver run right through the joint. That it looks like a kestrel's primary is the reason I chose the shape, not the reason for the hole.
  2. 2
    Long point, filed thin at the tip.A lug that stops dead makes a hard spot in a thin tube. A thinned point lets the stiffness fade out gradually.
  3. 3
    Silver, not brass, on the main tubes.It flows at a much lower heat, so the butted ends keep the strength the mill put into them.
123

Detail B — Bottom bracket

Fillet brazed · filed by hand
  1. 1
    Brass fillet, laid in three passes.Then filed until the tubes look as though they grew out of one another. About four hours a shell, and my favourite four.
  2. 2
    Threaded 68 mm shell, English thread.Any decent bike shop on earth can service it with tools they already own. Nothing pressed, nothing creaking.
  3. 3
    No lug here, on purpose.A cast shell fixes the stay angles. A fillet lets me put the chainstays exactly where your tyres and heels need them. See Sheet 2.
123

Detail C — Rear dropout

Stainless plate · stays slotted & domed
  1. 1
    Vertical slot.The wheel can only sit in one place, so brakes and mudguard lines stay true after every puncture, even one mended in the dark.
  2. 2
    Stay ends slotted, domed and brazed shut.A square-cut end holds water and starts to rust from the inside. A dome sheds it.
  3. 3
    Two eyelets each side.One for the mudguard stay, one for the rack. In the Calder valley neither is optional.
Sheet 4 of 4

The order of work

Fourteen weeks from tape measure to first ride, once your turn comes. One frame is on the jig at a time, so the bars below never overlap with anybody else's.

Prices

Frame and fork, luggedone colour, guards and rack fittings includedfrom £2,400
Frame and fork, fillet brazedfrom £2,650
Stainless dropouts and head badge£180
Second colour, or lugs lined by brush£220
Complete bicycle, built and fittedwheels laced here, toofrom £4,300
Deposit to hold your place£400
Waiting list, currentlyabout a year, sorry

Request a drawing

Figures carried from Sheet 2 —
Nothing leaves this sheet. I answer by hand, usually on a Sunday.
  1. Kestrel Frameworks, Unit 4, Calder Mill, Marrowdale, West Yorkshire.
  2. Workshop open by appointment, Thursdays. Kettle always on.

Third angle projection · All frames numbered and signed inside the bottom bracket shell