A Carbon Drop Out

This is the first sample i made of the carbon fober drop outs I will be using in future custom frames. The entire piece was made from strach by hand in my workshop. For a small builder like myself, it is very hard to find suppliers that will have drop outs in stock for carbon fiber bicycles. At the same time I didnt want to use the same drop out other builders are using. By making my own drop outs I feel a lot more independent and i believe that this will make your bicycle more unique. I see these little parts I make as small projects within the big picture, little works of art own it's own. I spent a great deal of time laying the carbon, cutting it, filing in and sanding it with nothing other than simple hand tools. Who needs a CNC machine when you have two perfectly good working hands, right?... Maybe one day my company will grow to the point where I need to have stuff made for me. Some will say this is the hard way to do it, but I enjoy the process very much. It makes me feel like i beat the system and reasures me that my skills and ingenuity are more valuable than the fancy tools that I don't have.