Now’s your chance to realize that life long dream of welding up your own bike. The guys down at The Bicycle Academy in Frome, Somerset are making their course available to all from January to April. Read on and find out more.
Back to School at The Bicycle Academy – Frame building courses available now!
Since opening in July 2012 The Bicycle Academy has taught over 80 people how to build frames. From complete novices, who had never even held a saw before, to seasoned professionals, who wanted to develop their brazing skills.
Up until now TBA have mostly been working through their crowd funding waiting list (people who had pledged money to get The Bicycle Academy started in return for a place on one of the courses) but now they’re opening up their course calendar to everyone and making courses available for booking from January through to April.
The courses are 4 days long and give students all the skills they need to be able to make a steel bicycle by hand, from start to finish. This includes teaching Brian Curtis’ famous fillet brazing technique.
People have been coming from all over the world to learn at the frame building workshop in Frome – Slovenia, Italy, Germany, Norway already and there are people on the waiting list from Australia, Brazil, India and Singapore.
There are some great things happening in the UK Frame building scene at the moment and it’s not all road bikes – you only have to look at BTR to see what can be achieved. Their latest project being a custom steel full suss frame born from their garden shed-come-workshop. Not everyone has got a shed full of tools and welding equipment though, and that’s where The Bicycle Academy really comes into its own. Unlike anywhere else students can hire a workbench at The Bicycle Academy, complete with tools, materials and brazing equipment – making it possible to build your own bikes no matter what your shed status!
Head on over to www.thebicycleacademy.org to find out more, courses are available now and they’re offering a 10% discount on courses taken in January.
