Meeting our makers: Italy visit 2024

Dom and Julie recently got back from a week in Italy – touring the workshops where MASON frames are built. We had a chat with Dom about where they went, what they looked at – and why MASON works with Italian tubing manufacturers and framebuilders.

Hi Dom. You recently got back from a trip out to Italy. What were you doing out there?

We went out to visit the makers who build our frames in the Padua region – our steel frames, our aluminium frames and one of our titanium models too. 

So, just a general catch-up, or anything specific you were working on?

A bit of both really. It’s really important to me that we keep a close relationship with our makers. These are the craftsmen who bring my designs to life, so it’s vital we get to meet, handle the tubes together, look at the details and ensure we understand each other’s work. We couldn’t create our bikes without this relationship. But yes, there were a few specific things we needed to take a close look at.

Can you tell us about those specific things?

The big thing was our new Macro hardtail. We’ve finished testing and we’re now moving into production, so I was discussing details with the makers as they get started on our first Macro framesets.

How’s the Macro looking?

I’m really excited about it. I think we all are. I had a very specific vision for the Macro: it’s a lightweight configurable hardtail. It’s full of options that will let riders set it up for their specific race or adventure – so cables, fork, even a choice between flat bar and drops – it’s all up for grabs for the rider. But that configurability depends on multiple details that need to be just right. So the makers and I were taking a good look at all these details, checking and double-checking it’s all coming together as it should.

Was it just the Macro? What else were you looking at?

We’re making some tweaks and refinements to some of our steel and titanium models, and when it comes to selecting new designs and tubing profiles, you just can’t beat looking at those tubes with the frame maker, deciding exactly how they're going to fit to dropouts and other components. Getting it right in the workshops, in person, means the new changes will be just right, saving us time and uncertainty.

So, largely about quality control, ensuring the frames are being built as they should?

Well, it’s much more of a conversation than that. I learn so much from these guys. They think of things that I haven't thought of and they can show me things that maybe I wouldn't have considered unless I was standing there with the metal in my hands. This is the main reason to go to Italy. And also one of the fundamental reasons for MASON in the first place was that I wanted to stand with the maker of the frame with the metal in my hands, looking at things together and discussing solutions.

Is this why you work with Italian framemakers?

It would all be very different if we got frames built in Taiwan. I would have chosen a tubeset, I would have sent them a set of frame drawings, they would weld us a sample and we would get it. Then we'd make changes and then there would be another sample and we'd make more changes and only then would we be able to put it into production. But working with our Italian friends, I do the drawings, then we come up with a custom tubeset together.

Normally I'm out there with them in Italy, talking about tubes when we're at the very first stages. And then I'm out in Italy again when they're welding the first samples. It’s a collaboration. So it’s not just about the framebuilders. It’s the tubing manufacturers too. Most of our bikes are formed from Dedacciai or Columbus tubes, so I visit them too.

At Dedacciai, Stefano, one of the owners, has supported us very closely right from the start. I actually know the guy who bends the tubes, Marco. I go down to the factory floor with him and we look at the tubes for a certain design. Sometimes we'll take a sample frame or we'll take a wheel, a tyre and a crank and we'll hold the tubes together to check for fit and clearance. Marco will do some very clever bending, then we'll fit it again and then he'll make some marks and he'll go away and he'll bend them again. It's almost like a tailored suit experience, where you're having someone fitting the sleeves to you and then taking them back off and going away and changing them.

Sometimes, we make brilliant discoveries together. Marco will do some bending and then, all of a sudden, he'll be like, “Wow we've got an extra 5mm clearance on either side of the tyre, plus we can get the chainring size we need on it.” We keep going until we get it right. It’s a real hands-on process. It was like this with the Macro. I knew I wanted the Macro to have clearance for 2.4” tyres, but I needed to work with Dedacciai on the tubing to make that happen – working out exactly where those tubes should be bent into shape. And this brings other implications for things like the brake mounts, so we had to work closely on that to get it all just right.

You mentioned making refinements to new versions of existing designs. Can you tell us more?

We’ve done a lot of work on the Aspect – our titanium road frame. We’re modernising the Aspect and making two versions: one with fully integrated routing and one that keeps conventional internal routing, but both versions are getting a lot of other changes. When we launched the Aspect, I kind of saw it like a titanium version of the Resolution, but we've watched the way that people use the Aspect over the years and we've progressively made it more sporty feeling, a bit less ‘all road’ and a bit more ‘fast multi-surface road’. So the tubing has evolved to reflect that. We’ve already worked with Dedacciai to make a larger downtube for the Aspect, and it will have a T47 BB which is bigger and more stable. But this time in Italy, we were looking at new seatstays and chainstays for the Aspect – to fit the new BB, but also to improve the way the Aspect rides.

The new chainstays have three bends in them – they are deeper and stiffer, for better pedalling efficiency. But the seatstays have now got a slightly slimmer profile, ovalised and widened where they meet the seattube – for comfort and compliance. These are the kind of changes that we can only make by going to Italy, meeting the experts, holding those tubes, looking at them, actually holding them up against the dropouts in the frame. We discuss clearances and how they are going to weld them – all that kind of thing.

We also celebrated our 10 year anniversary with one of the makers who has been with us from the start. We shared a bottle of Italian sparkling wine and shot some pictures with the team there. These guys have worked on our frames right from the start and have become good friends, so that was a special thing to do.

Was it just the Aspect and the Macro you checked out while you were in Italy?

There was a fresh batch of Bokeh and Definition frames being finished, so we did some final checks on those before they went into paint.

Did you see any frames being painted?

The painter is really near one of the makers’ workshops, so yes, we popped in. Our painter is great. They have a track record with other high-end manufacturers, they’re happy working with our small batch quantities, and being so near our manufacturing, we get to cut down on transport costs and emissions.

We had a good look at the colours for the new Macro. The first Macros will come in Grigio Tecno, which is already on some other models – and a new special 10-year-celebration colour that we’re calling TiltShift Metallic. The new colour will be limited release, but both colour schemes will come with special 10-year decals. I was able to work with Sandra whilst she worked on the placement for decals on our final sample Macro frame. This was a real treat because I don’t usually get to do this!

Was it all work and no play in Italy?

Well it's normally all work with me. I get out there as quickly as possible and get home and back to work as quickly as possible. But Julie insisted that we needed to take a holiday, so we did! In between factory visits we took a few days in Brisighella, which is lovely: amazing riding trails up there. It's very mountainous and rugged up there with ravines and amazing off-road trails and super smooth switchback roads.

Were there many people riding?

Hiking is really popular on the trails, and you see lightweight carbon XC bikes being ridden fast, but not many metal bikes, and bikepacking doesn’t really seem to be a thing there, which is a shame.

I really like the idea of introducing more bikepacking and getting some more MASON bikes out there. They've got these amazing downhill trails through nature reserves with loads of interesting caves and gullies and things like that. And then they've got these incredible switchbacks which you can either ride up on the road or you can do it the other way around. The area is full of restaurants and beautiful towns and things to see.

Which MASON bike would you most think is best suited to the riding you saw on offer out there in Italy?

[Dom pauses and thinks]

Do you know what? I think I'd take my Exposure. Set up just as it is. Some of the trails are pretty rugged in parts and I know I could smash the Exposure down them. But then I know I could twiddle back up the roads. Or it'd be awesome on a downhill on the roads anyway. So I would probably take that – or hold on – maybe the new Macro! Now that would be a super-fun weapon out there! Hmmm..