DiscoverBikes & Big IdeasBTR’s Paul ‘Burf’ Burford on Rat Bikes & Making Affordable UK-Built Frames
BTR’s Paul ‘Burf’ Burford on Rat Bikes & Making Affordable UK-Built Frames

BTR’s Paul ‘Burf’ Burford on Rat Bikes & Making Affordable UK-Built Frames

Update: 2025-07-10
Share

Description

Our Bike Editor, David Golay, has a long history with BTR. Back when 26’’ wheels were still the norm, he found them while making a wide search for a builder who made a hardtail with the sort of aggressive geometry he had in mind at the time — and the Ranger was, by far, the most promising option.


Over a decade later, he’s on his third Ranger, having ordered two more with increasingly custom geometry as his preferences have evolved — and they’ve consistently been fantastic. But they’re also quite expensive, with build quality, finishing details, and construction to match.


So it immediately caught our attention when Paul ‘Burf’ Burford, the man behind BTR, launched a new project to build affordable, simple frames, by hand, in the UK: Rat Bikes. And for this week’s episode, we sat down with Burf to hear all about it.

RELATED LINKS:

Skratch Labs

Rat Bikes

Get Our Free Newsletter & Gear Giveaways

BLISTER+ Get Yourself Covered

TOPICS & TIMES:

The Rat Bikes concept (3:00 )

How to make affordable, UK-built frames? (7:54 )

Cutting costs in frame design (15:59 )

The Dad Rat (24:13 )

Prototyping & next steps (35:25 )

CHECK OUT OUR OTHER PODCASTS:

Blister Cinematic

CRAFTED

GEAR:30

Blister Podcast



Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Comments 
In Channel
loading
00:00
00:00
x

0.5x

0.8x

1.0x

1.25x

1.5x

2.0x

3.0x

Sleep Timer

Off

End of Episode

5 Minutes

10 Minutes

15 Minutes

30 Minutes

45 Minutes

60 Minutes

120 Minutes

BTR’s Paul ‘Burf’ Burford on Rat Bikes & Making Affordable UK-Built Frames

BTR’s Paul ‘Burf’ Burford on Rat Bikes & Making Affordable UK-Built Frames