In today's world of mass marketing and mass production, all too often performance, comfort and fit are sacrificed. When buying a racing frame there are primarily two factors which provide ultimate satisfaction: fit and suitability to purpose.  A custom frame achieves excellent fit with a design specifically made to suit your purpose.  Of course product cost and production time are also essential consideration when you want a new frame.  Personalization also becomes a big plus when going custom.  Let's look at each. 

Cost: Off-the-rack racing frames can cost shocking amounts of money.  Why?  Middle-men, advertising, and profit margins are responsible for the sticker shock.  Amazingly, you can have a custom made frame from a small builder who's willing to work for a reasonable profit at a fraction of the price.  Why? Because you're buying direct and so layers of mark-up are avoided.  At this website you can price your dream frame and see for yourself that even though it's a custom frame, it's tough to find off-the-rack product at the same price.

Production Time: Terraferma produces one frame at a time, each taking about one month from the time the order is submitted to the time it is shipped to the customer.  Mike Terraferma focuses on one frame building project at a time,  If your order will take beyond 30 days to complete you will be informed of the current time estimate in advance. 

Fit: Frame builders of production frames generalize the dimensions of their frames to fit the average male rider.  (Females often have even more difficulty with fit than males as a result).  If the ratio of leg to torso deviates from the manufacturer's assumptions, fit will be compromised.  A custom builder can take a fresh look at your requirements as dictated by your body measurements and find the best seat and top tube length for you.  An optimized fit translates into greater riding comfort and better bike handling.

Suitability to Purpose:  Just as fit is generalized in production frames, so are the needs of cyclists who buy off-the-rack product.   If you're a road rider, for example, you may need a bike for training, racing, or both.  Or maybe you prefer century rides.  Through your selection of tube sets and the selective use of carbon from which we make your frame, and with our assistance in determining the optimum geometry, we produce a frame like nothing you can buy off-the-rack.  From all-day comfort to track sprints, only a custom frame can be designed to ideally suit your needs.

Personalization: Finally your ideal frame will be designed with your chosen colors. Custom bikes can be given that unique paint job that nobody else has in the peleton.  From a wide variety of colors and graphics you will be able to have something that is totally your own.

Finally, note that while pro riders may appear to ride what you can buy in a bike shop, most all have custom made frames.  Once you've had a custom made frame it's difficult to accept the many compromises entailed in buying a production line product.