Originally Posted by
Boxkite
I'm sure they do for some of the riders. I remember seeing Team 7-11's 'Huffy' racing bicycles in the peloton but they weren't built by Huffy! They were all custom fab jobs! I'm always a big fan of the 'climbers' and I'm sure Nairo Quintana's ride is custom. If an off-the-shelf item fits then it's a moot point probably. It would be interesting to know what teams fit custom frames to their riders.
Nairo Quintana’s frame is almost certainly an off-the-shelf Canyon Ultimate CF SLX, with a custom paint job. Modern major bike companies pretty much don’t make custom carbon monocoque frames, it’s just too expensive, and it’s just easier to dial in a rider’s position starting from a standard size by adjusting seat and bar position.
Back when race bikes were all hand-made steel anyway, it was a lot less of an additional hassle to make a frame out of a made-to-measure tube set. My LBS has an old TdF-ridden bike from the 80s on display. It was crashed in Belgium during the classics, sent back to the Raleigh factory in Nottingham for repairs, then returned to the rider in France in time to win 2 stages of the Tour in July. Nowadays if a carbon frame gets damaged in a race it gets replaced.