On episode Fifty Nine we are chatting to Jon Aston the Founder and Owner of Chickens Frame Emporium about building, designing, shaping, welding and producing top notch steel frames hand build in the UK. I was put in touch with Jon by Tom Redfern, founder and owner of the MTB apparel brand Broken Riders. Tom was on episode number 38 of the podcast and thought Jon would make a great guest. So I reached out and Jon was kind enough to come on the show and share his story.
It was great to get Jon on the show as he see's the mountain bike industry in a different light and is not scared to air his views and thoughts on the industry. Jon got into building frames in a different way from most but if you had to put it down to one thing it would have to be passion. Jon loves what he does and even though he does not work out of a state of the art workshop and maybe he doesn't have the latest piece of building equipment, Jon is super stoked to be where he is and do what he's doing. Building frames for people and seeing smiles on their faces as they pick-up and ride their new frame is all it takes.
Jon chats to us about the building process, what steel he uses and how he goes about fabricating a bike frame. Jon works with all kind of orders, everything from ice-cream bikes to mountain bikes to fire breathing dragons (you will have to listen to the show to find out about that one) but mountain biking is where his passions are the strongest. We chat to Jon about why he loves steel so much, why he only makes hardtails, the many options that are available for your bespoke build plus much much more.
