Filament Bikes (formally Craddock Cycles) is a British carbon fibre frame specialist that has for the last few years been building some stunning bikes, and it has just launched a new model called the Super Duty.
The Super Duty gets a completely new carbon fibre tubeset with a focus on increasing the overall frame stiffness, aimed at appealing to more powerful cyclists.
Craddock has developed a larger octagonal profile and it’s used in the top tube and down tube. There are also brand new rear stays. The top tube is noticeably more flared where it meets the head tube than regular Filament models, and the down tube looks positively massive.
Filament provides a fully bespoke service. You can customise the geometry if you have a particular preference, choose disc or rim brakes, choose from three bottom brackets and a cable routing option to match your groupset, mechanical, wired or wireless. There are also seven stock sizes if you don’t want or need a custom setup.
Once you’ve chosen your frame details, all that remains is to choose the paint colour and design. Personally, I’m all over the orange with black splatter finish.
Frames will be supplied with colour matched Enve forks and Chris King headsets. Current delivery time is eight weeks and the frameset costs £3,600.
The majority of carbon fibre frames are made in the Far East. Huge manufacturing investment has gradually brought down the price of a carbon fibre bicycle frame, and they’re now more affordable than they ever used to be.
Craddock set out with the bold ambition to build its own carbon frames here in the UK. Founder Richard Craddock has built his very own composite production facility in Worcestershire and produces in the region of 50 frames a year. This isn’t a production line approach to frame building, it’s a fully bespoke service with hours poured into producing each frame.
Craddock constructs each frame with precisely mitred roll wrapped carbon tubes before wrapping the joints with pre-impregnated carbon fibre, and then curing the frame under pressure in an oven, much the same process as many top-end carbon frames. The process allows for custom geometry, as well as being able to optimise the frame for its intended use and rider weight through tube choice. You can learn more about his construction technique here.
More details at www.filamentbikes.com/bikes/super-duty-road
12 thoughts on “British carbon specialist Filament launches new Super Duty frame”
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All good, though pricey. How about the weight?
boblo wrote:
950g for the frame boblo
Gorgeous frames, next on my
Gorgeous frames, next on my list.
Beautiful bike and even more
Beautiful bike and even more so that it is UK built – top stuff!
OMG! Another orange frame for
OMG! Another orange frame for me to consider!
So an expensive anchor? Oh
So an expensive anchor then? Looks loverly, though I’d get one in Kawasaki green rather than Terry’s chocolate orange, errrm, orange. Oh well, strikes it off the list…
boblo wrote:
This one has been oversized to ramp up the stiffness, so the weight has likely increased as a result. A regular frame is 850g.
Looks nice but at this end of
Looks nice but at this end of the ‘sprinters’ market it would be hard to look past Cipollini NK1K:
http://road.cc/content/review/199274-cipollini-nk1k-frameset
Wonder how it compares..
I’d rather get a cheaper UK
I’d rather get a cheaper UK made frame to my exact dimensions than a mass produced one.
Broady. wrote:
Yes the bespoke geometry (presumably at no extra cost) is nice assuming you can’t fit on the normal sizes.
UK-made is a rarity indeed, but so is Italian made a la Cipo. Not sure either guarantees a higher quality, but certainly accounts for higher cost. Also unsure of your definition of ‘mass produced’ given that I doubt they make many Cipo’s each year either!
700c wrote:
My apologies, I assumed Cipos were made in Asia like everything else!
Seems like a fair price for a
Seems like a fair price for a custom UK limited production carbon frame. You’d pay a hell of a lot more for some of the top Italian (Chinese) off the shelf frames. Obvious they are doing it for the love hope the demands their and they can up the production a bit.