Framebuilders in Europe?

Hi there – I’m a hobbiest framebuilder originally from Minnesota in the US, but I currently live in Barcelona. I’m just starting to figure out where to source materials, etc and wondering if there are any other European framebuilders active on this forum who can offer tips. Would be nice to get a thread going if there are a few of us :slight_smile:

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I’m from Minnesota also. I was in Spain in December. Unfortunately, I had to come back. I’m sure you’re already aware, but if not: ET Bicicleta in Madrid would be a good resource.

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I did not know about ET Bicicleta, thank you!

I’m in Holland, since after brexit I used biketubing.com. They are in holland and they have the Columbus catalog.
In the uk there is ceeway

Was just about ask this same question, about to move to Norway. Anyone have experience buying stuff from the US and shipping it over? Is shipping too much for it to be worth it?

Not sure about Norway, but my experience getting things shipped to Spain from the US has been pure hassle (and not cheap). Haven’t yet had anything shipped from inside the EU but I’m hoping that’s easier.

We ship internationally and our shipway is DHL and FedEx. You can always contact Ceeway in the UK and I ship to them once a month. We don’t make any money off the shipping costs; we draw the costs directly from DHL and FedEx servers. As for import taxes and fees, you’ll have to check with your own governments. Customers have told me that while FedEx cost less to ship, FedEx importing/processing fees are higher than DHL.

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DHL has the higher fees on import to Europe, at least in my country. Preferred option on import is FEDEX, both from US, UK and China.

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I run one of the largest frame shops in Europe where we cater for several well known brands. You can buy direct from Columbus the min order is 500 euros for a hobby builder even these days this represents much better value for money then using these reseller type distributors

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Hummm… You can buy from them IF they accept to open you an account ! Last time I asked, they didn’t want to open small accounts anymore.

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Someone recently asked me for EU parts resource information. They only knew of Ceeway before Brexit happened. This is really helpful. Thank you for this thread.

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REYNOLDS has just opened an EU based hub in Portugal to attend European framebuilders, big and small. We have around 100 references of tubes but can get different ones on request as we have one or two monthly restocks. You can send me an email with inquiries if interested and I’ll send the EU price list. Shipping within EU does not have import taxes and if you are a registered company, you save on VAT too…

ps@reynoldstechnology.eu

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@PSantana thank you!

Hello, I’m a hobby framebuilder from Italy, I struggled a lot to find suppliers…
This is my “EU list”:
reset-racing.de, similar to ceeway, the website is in German but it’s a nice thing to learn new words… “ausfallenden” is “dropouts”.
rmcbikes.com, from Greece (I think it has something to do with Fidusa.gr)
thecnoline.it here in Italy.
3dpbs.com from Germany.

It’s not possible to order from Columbus if you don’t have a VAT number: I order my tubes from reset-racing and next time I’ll try biketubing.com… that news from Reynolds is really good!

In Barcelona you can meet Legor Cicli and also Bellé, but I’m quite sure they’re not on this forum.

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Thank you for sharing!

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BB and headtubes in regular steel? Reset-racing only have chrommoly.
I live in Sweden.

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@PJF By “regular steel” you mean mild steel? I’m not an expert by any means, but the impression I have is that people don’t use mild steel in framebuilding very often – or if they do they just buy regular steel tubing from a metal supplier. I don’t think I’ve ever seen mild steel tubing from a framebuilding supplier

Not sure who you are asking but PMW steel straight headtubes are either 1020 or 4130 steel

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BB and headtube is thicker. Mild steel is ok to many applications. I use Docol 8 straight tubes.