Plenty of other builders in the UK, which is the good news. Nobody I'm aware of with BJ's history building to order at those very attractive BJ prices. Also nobody I've seen that had online ordering sorted as well. All the tubing, lug, bz-on, paint, chrome, etc options you might want were all laid out and well-linked. My understanding is you'd hear back from Donald to confirm everything and sort out any details needing sorting. But, as old a fogey as I am, it was very neat to be able to put all that together online---to play with all those options and watch how the price changed. Barber pole? Click. Chrome chainstays? Click. Newvex lugs? Click. 853? Click. Yikes! What about 653? Click. Etc.
Mercian and Woodrup still building traditional steel, maybe the two most prominent larger-volume mfrs. But you'll be starting at US$1k+ instead of $600ish like BJ.
More small builders scattered about as well.
You might want to check the previous BJ threads here and elsewhere for leads.
I can only imagine how disappointing this must be for Jackson's prev owners and staff. Went from "whelp, time to retire..." to "OMG, somebody's throwing money at us to keep going!" to "The money's gone..." in the space of a couple of months.
Originally Posted by
steelbikeguy
[snips]
It does raise the issue of who still builds traditional British steel bikes. I think Mercian is still in business?
Steve in Peoria (I have many more photos, but don't want to get too far off topic)