The workshop
Heritage Cycles is a 6-person framebuilding workshop in north Manchester, tucked into a 1920s mill conversion. They make hand-brazed, lugged steel touring frames for randonneur cyclists and bikepacking outfits across the UK + EU. Average 70 frames a year, all built-to-measure, 6-week individual builds inside a 6-month seasonal cycle.
The "heritage-touring" run is their flagship batch: 60 frames built around a single design language (mixed-tube Reynolds 853, lugged construction, polished brass fittings) for randonneur events in 2027. They're commissioned 18 months ahead by a randonneur-tour operator in the Yorkshire Dales who wants matched frames for their guided rides.
The 2-region problem
Heritage's brass fittings (headtubes, dropouts, water-bottle bosses) had been coming from Bergamo for 6 years — there's a small cluster of Italian brass-cast workshops that supply most independent UK framebuilders. Their steel lugs (the joining sleeves between tubes) came from Sheffield, the heart of UK precision-steel.
The catch: each region had its own agent, each with its own markup, each with its own quote-cycle. The Bergamo agent worked in EUR, the Sheffield agent in GBP, and Heritage was paying both to handle paperwork they could've done themselves. After Brexit, the duplicated costs got worse — the Bergamo agent added a 6% "EU customs handler" line item that nobody could explain.
Heritage's owner Marcus had been on the BLUN · Listing waitlist since their public launch. "I was ready the moment they had hardware verticals on the platform," he said. The platform added Hardware in February 2026; he ran his first dual-region brief 5 weeks later.
The 18 days, in parallel
Brief sent
EN→IT auto-translation. 4 brass-casting workshops in Bergamo cluster. Marcus attached the headtube-spec PDF + 60-set batch sheet.
3 of 4 replies in
Officine Mecca, Fonderia Lombarda, Brass-Co Bergamo all responded. Avg 4.8h reply. Mecca quoted EUR 19.67 €/set with Reynolds-853 compatibility verified.
Sample headtube received
Mecca shipped a single sample fitting via DHL — Marcus brazed it to a test-tube and confirmed the brass-flow + temperature window matched his usual practice.
Negotiation — EUR/GBP rate fix
Mecca initial 21.50 €/set, Marcus countered at 19 €. Settled 19.67 € with EUR-locked invoicing for 6 months — protects against GBP swings on Marcus's side.
PO signed (Bergamo)
60 brass-fitting sets at 19.67 € = 1,180 € total · Mangopay LU escrow · 14-day net · BRT to Manchester.
Brief sent
EN-only (UK supplier track). 3 investment-cast forges in Sheffield district. Spec: Reynolds-853-compatible lug set, 60 framesets, polish-finished.
2 of 3 replies in
Penley Steelworks and Sheffield Cast both quoted in 36h. Penley offered £14/set; Sheffield Cast £16/set. Third didn't reply (bidder dropout).
Visit-by-video
Penley's owner Robert ran a 14-min video tour of the investment-casting line. Marcus asked about heat-treat consistency at scale; Robert pulled batch records on camera.
Sample lug arrives
Penley shipped 2 lugs via Royal Mail. Marcus's framebuilder Ana checked dimensional tolerance: ±0.05mm on the head-tube collar — better than spec.
PO signed (Sheffield)
60 lug framesets at £14 = £840 · Stripe IE GBP · 30-day net · DPD overnight to Manchester. Both region's POs locked in same week.
The 2 suppliers Heritage onboarded
Family-run brass-cast workshop, 3rd-gen. Specialty: investment-cast brass fittings for steel-bicycle framebuilders. Reynolds-853 compatibility verified. 60 sets at 19.67 €/set, 6-month price-lock.
Investment-cast steel-lug specialist, supplies 80% of UK framebuilders. Reynolds-tube compatible, ±0.05mm dimensional tolerance. 60 framesets at £14/set, 30-day net.
"For six years I had two agents I never met, taking 12% off the top in two currencies, doing paperwork I could've done myself. BLUN · Listing put my brief in front of the actual workshops in 4 hours. The Bergamo brass-caster's grandfather started the business — I've now spoken to him directly twice. The Sheffield forge is a 90-minute drive away, but I'd never met them either. That changed in 18 days."MC Marcus Cole, Owner · Heritage Cycles 6-person framebuilding workshop · Manchester · founded 2017
What's next for Heritage Cycles
The 60-frame heritage-touring batch starts brazing 12 May. First 30 frames ship to the Yorkshire Dales tour operator end of August; second 30 follow in October for randonneur clients across France, Belgium, and Switzerland. The £3,840 saved on raw-material sourcing is going into a new alignment table for the workshop (long overdue) and a third paint-booth slot.
Marcus is also using BLUN · Listing for a smaller parallel run: chrome-tanned leather saddles from the Tuscan workshops Anna Müller onboarded — Conceria Castello has agreed to a small-batch test for Heritage's flagship "Pennine" model. "That's exactly the cross-pollination this platform should do," Marcus said. "Two workshops in different industries, sourced from the same roster, building one bicycle."