Darren Baum trained and worked as a certified aircraft engineer and stainless steel TIG welder before becoming a frame builder. His cycling career began as an A grade rider before a car accident in 1990 sparked a long-term interest in how biomechanics and the bike’s impact on a rider’s core stability can be used to increase performance.

Darren has been a frame builder for more than fifteen years, and has developed a unique design and construction processes that allow the size, stiffness and handling of each frame to be tuned to the precise needs of individual rider needs:

1990 Apprentice to Master Frame builder Brian Cross. Building with pressed lugs, silver solder and Reynolds 753.
1993 Transition to Italian frame building techniques; cast lugs and brass.
1995 Started building frames constructed with polished stainless steel Henry James lugs.
1996 First frames sold on a commercial basis under the ‘Baum’ name.
1997 Starts fillet brazed construction of steel.
1998 First production of TIG welded steel and aluminium frames.
2002 First titanium prototype frames made.

Today Darren is happily married with two children, advancing the art of titanium frame building, still riding and racing.

Regarding Quality
All stages of manufacturing from CAD design to tube mitring and butting to painting, are completed in-house — it’s the only way to ensure total quality control.

We’re fussy about the details, because that’s what really makes the difference. We machine our own head tubes, bottom brackets and dropouts in-house to optimise the alignment, weight and stiffness of the bike, and we’ve developed our own processes for butting, shaping and heat-treating tubes that allow us to keep the original (and ideal) properties of the materials intact. All of our frames are painted in-house using a paint facility developed with PPG, the worlds leading supplier of high performance paints.

We select only the highest grade materials and components. Steel and titanium are both excellent materials for frames; they allow a wide range of tubes for customisation, do not fatigue and provide a good feel for the road or trail. Steel has a livelier feel, titanium provides more damping and yields a slightly lighter frame.

The way we assemble your bike is the way you’d want it if you were doing it yourself. Every bolt is torqued to manufacturer’s specifications, cable ends soldered, bearings checked for alignment and smoothness and each bike test ridden and washed before it leaves the factory.

Every frame comes with a lifetime guarantee: ‘if it is our fault we fix it – no questions asked’ and we provide a low-cost rapid replacement service should your bike ever be damaged in a crash.

We still ride every day and still race, so we know how important it is to get it right from the start.