1.1
Steel is honest
A chromoly tube tells you what it is doing: under the torch, under the file, under you at 60 km/h on a bad descent. It flexes, warns, and forgives. We have never met a spreadsheet that does that.
HANDBUILT FRAMES · PROVIDENCE, RI · EST. 2011
The frame is a drawing you can ride.
Every Mistral begins as a full-scale pencil drawing and ends as mitred, brazed chromoly, checked on the alignment plate to a half millimetre, twice. Two builders. Around forty frames a year. No two alike, all of them true.
- 612 frames since 2011
- 0.5 mm mitre tolerance
- ≈7 mo door to door
72.5° HEAD ANGLE
385 REACH, MM
9/6/9 BUTTED CRMO
FIG. 1 / FRAMESET, SIZE 55
§ 01
Why we still light the torch
1.2
Fit is geometry
A stem swap is a patch; geometry is the cure. We move the tubes, not your spine. Reach, stack, trail and front-centre are drawn around your body and your loads before a single mitre is cut.
1.3
Repair is a feature
Every joint we braze can be un-brazed. A dented top tube is an afternoon, not a funeral. We build objects meant to outlive their paint, their parts, and quite possibly us.
“A frame should be quiet. The road has enough to say.”
§ 02
The builds
Three starting drawings. Each one is redrawn around you.
BUILD 01 / FLAGSHIP
Tramontane
All-road randonneur
Low-trail geometry drawn for a handlebar bag and a long day. Triple-butted 9/6/9 chromoly, thin-wall fork blades raked to 65 mm, and clearance for 42 mm tyres with fenders. It disappears under you at hour nine, which is the whole point.
- 650B or 700C
- Trail 38 mm
- Rack + dynamo bosses
- Paint: storm navy / signal orange
Framesets from $3,400 · complete builds from $7,900
BUILD 02
Levant
Road, quick and not twitchy
A road frame with manners: 72.5° head angle, 415 mm stays, and a fork we braze on Tuesdays because Tuesdays are calm. Stiff where you stand, forgiving where you sit.
- 700C × 32 max
- Trail 55 mm
- Fillet-brazed, unfiled on request
- Mechanical or Di-free electronic
Framesets from $3,150
BUILD 03
Sirocco
City porteur
Forty pounds of groceries on the front rack and it steers like nothing changed. Oversized down tube, kickstand plate, double top tube on the largest sizes because we like how it looks.
- 650B × 47
- Integrated front rack
- 8-speed internal hub ready
- Powder coat, any RAL
Framesets from $2,850
§ 03
Geometry: Tramontane, stock drawings
Millimetres unless noted. Custom drawings deviate freely; these are where the pencil starts.
| SIZE | REACH | STACK | HT∠ | ST∠ | CS | TRAIL | WB |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 51 | 371 | 545 | 71.5° | 73.5° | 430 | 58 | 1002 |
| 53 | 378 | 560 | 72.0° | 73.5° | 430 | 56 | 1008 |
| 55 | 385 | 575 | 72.5° | 73.0° | 432 | 55 | 1016 |
| 57 | 392 | 592 | 72.5° | 73.0° | 435 | 55 | 1026 |
| 59 | 399 | 610 | 73.0° | 72.5° | 437 | 53 | 1034 |
| 61 | 406 | 628 | 73.0° | 72.5° | 440 | 53 | 1044 |
HT∠ head-tube angle · ST∠ seat-tube angle · CS chainstay length · WB wheelbase. Trail figures assume 650B × 42 at size 51–55, 700C × 35 above.
THE WALL / EVERY FRAME HANGS HERE FOR ONE NIGHT BEFORE PAINT
§ 04
One room, two benches
The shop is a former die-cutting room on Anvil Street: north light, a concrete floor with forty years of other people’s work in it, and a ventilation fan we argue with every winter. One bench holds the torch, the other holds the files. Frames move between them slowly.
We braze with silver at the lugs and brass at the fillets, and we let joints cool at their own pace, because hurried steel keeps a grudge. Alignment happens on a cast-iron plate older than both of us, and the last hour of every build is spent with a half-round file and the radio off.
Visitors are welcome on Fridays. You will be handed coffee and, if you linger near the vice, possibly emery cloth.
§ 05
Outfitting
The few objects we trust enough to sell alongside the frames.
Touring saddle, leather
Breaks in around 800 km
$190
Road helmet, navy
The one we wear
$240
Waxed canvas tool roll
Sewn two blocks away
$85
§ 06
The two of us
Mara Voss
FRAMES · TORCH · GEOMETRY
Twenty-one years at the torch, the last fourteen on her own drawings. Mara apprenticed in a Bremen randonneur shop, kept the metric habit, and will defend low-trail geometry at any dinner you make the mistake of inviting her to.
Arjun Mehta
PAINT · FIT · THE DRAWINGS
Trained as an industrial designer, converted by a borrowed 1974 tourer with a bent fork he fixed in a stairwell. Arjun runs the fit jig, mixes every paint colour in-house, and letters the drawing that you sign.
§ 07
Ordering in five operations
01
Consultation 45 MIN
A call or a visit. Bring your current bike, your complaints about it, and honesty about how you actually ride. We take notes in pencil.
02
Fit & drawing 2 WKS
A fit session on the jig, then a full-scale frame drawing. You sign the drawing. We build to the drawing. Nothing changes after the signature without another one.
03
Deposit & queue ≈5 MO
A $900 deposit holds your slot. The queue moves at the speed of two people who refuse to hurry a mitre. We email monthly; you may reply or not.
04
The build 3 WKS
Tubes mitred to the half millimetre, pinned, brazed, and left to normalize overnight before alignment. Your frame is checked on the plate twice: hot and cold.
05
Paint & delivery 4 WKS
Wet paint in the booth next door, decals under clear, threads chased, faces faced. Crated, insured, and tracked, or collected with coffee.
§ 08
Field notes & questions
Why steel, in this decade?
Because it can be repaired, repainted, and re-loved for fifty years. Because tubing walls under a torch respond to a builder in a way moulds never will. And because a good steel frame rides like a conversation, not a lecture.
How long is the wait, really?
About five months to the torch, three weeks on the bench, four in paint. Call it seven months door to door. We will not compress the queue for money; we have been offered, and it was awkward for everyone.
Can you copy the geometry of my old frame?
We can measure it, learn from it, and keep everything you love. We will also quietly fix its front-centre if it has been clipping your toes for a decade. That part is not optional.
Do you ship internationally?
Yes: crated framesets to most countries, complete bikes to the EU, UK, Japan and Australia. Duties are yours; the crate is engineered so the courier would have to try very hard.
What if I crash it?
Send photographs first. Most bent steel can be cold-set, re-mitred or re-tubed; a front triangle replacement costs a fraction of a new frame. Steel forgives. That is the romance and also the engineering.
The queue opens on the first Monday of each month.
Six slots. A drawing with your name on it.
Write to the workshop