£1,995.00 inc. VAT
Convert a steel MTB into your own CarryON cargo bike in five days — no experience needed.
A hands-on five-day workshop turning your donor MTB into a complete CarryON frame conversion.
Secure your place with a 50% deposit — balance due 30 days before the course begins.
For Cycle To Work Scheme options just get in touch.
See Klarna finance options.
Build Your Own CarryON is a practical, five-day course for people who want to turn a classic steel MTB into a proper front-loading cargo bike — and do the conversion themselves. You’ll start with a suitable 26″ steel donor bike and work through the brazing, cutting, fitting and alignment needed to turn it into a CarryON.
The course is structured so you can focus on the hands-on fabrication and leave with a high-quality CarryON conversion you built yourself.
If you’d like to see how the CarryON works, how the conversion comes together, and some finished builds, you can watch our CarryON videos on the Stayer YouTube channel.
Before the course begins, we’ll make sure your donor bike is suitable for conversion and that everything is ready for the workshop week.
The CarryON is designed around steel 26″ mountain bikes, particularly rigid and short-travel MTBs from the 1990s and early 2000s. If you already have a donor bike, we’ll ask you to send over some photos and basic details so we can confirm that it’s suitable.
If you don’t already have a suitable donor bike, we may be able to help source one for you — just get in touch before booking.
We’ll complete the majority of the CarryON kit preparation and fabrication in advance, leaving the brazing of the kit itself and the actual frame conversion for you to complete during the course.
Next, you’ll join us in the Stayer workshop for five days of practical, hands-on fabrication.
To begin, you’ll practise the core brazing techniques on test pieces so you can get comfortable with the torch, heat control and joint preparation before moving on to the actual CarryON.
You’ll then start building your own front end.
During the week, you will:
And yes — you’ll personally cut the original head tube out of your own bike.
You’ll do the fabrication yourself throughout, with close guidance from the Stayer team at each stage.
By the end of the week, you’ll have turned your donor MTB into a raw-finish CarryON cargo frame ready for finishing and final assembly.
You’ll leave with the complete CarryON system, including:
Depending on your donor frame, you can also make a few useful changes as part of the conversion — adding bottle, rack or accessory bosses by silver soldering, removing unwanted cantilever bosses, and carrying out a rear disc-brake conversion if you choose.
The CarryON front end is disc-brake specific. At the rear, you can retain your donor bike’s existing rim brake, convert it to disc, or keep both options where practical. We generally recommend the rear disc-brake conversion.
All CarryON-specific fabrication materials, workshop consumables, fixtures and tooling used during the course are included in the course price.
The course covers the frame conversion itself rather than the final bicycle build.
Once your converted frame is finished, you’ll still need to build it up into a complete bike.
If you’re starting with a complete donor MTB, most of the original bike can often be reused — including the drivetrain, rear wheel, cranks, handlebars, stem, saddle, seatpost and, depending on your setup, the rear brake.
The main new components you’ll need are a suitable 20″ front wheel, front disc brake, headsets and the cables or hoses required for the finished build. Exactly what else is needed will depend on your donor bike and how you choose to set it up.
You can assemble the bike yourself, work with your local bike shop or mechanic, or talk to us about suitable options.
For more detail on completing your bike — including example builds, component options and typical costs — see the main CarryON Conversion page and our CarryON Add-Ons & Upgrades.
By the end of the five-day workshop, your CarryON conversion will be structurally complete and ready for finishing.
There are a few ways you can finish the bike, depending on how polished or DIY you want the end result to be.
The most straightforward option is to have the whole converted frame shot-blasted and powder coated in a single colour. If you’d like us to arrange this, the price is £425 for the converted frame, fork and removable cargo rack, including preparation and post-coating chasing and facing.
You can also keep more of the original donor-bike finish. For example, the separate new CarryON parts — such as the fork and rack — can be powder coated, while the converted main frame is finished yourself with spray paint. You can also leave some of the new steel unpainted if you’re happy for it to gradually develop surface rust over time.
Alternatively, you can DIY spray the whole bike yourself.
Wet paint is also possible, but for a working cargo bike we generally recommend powder coating as the more hard-wearing option.
Finishing is not included in the course price. If you’d like us to arrange powder coating, it’s best to discuss this with us before the course so we can plan it in advance.
This course focuses on brazing and frame conversion. Final bicycle assembly, paint and finishing are not included.
For everyone’s safety, students are expected to follow instructor guidance and workshop safety procedures at all times. We reserve the right to stop a student from carrying out any activity we consider unsafe.
To make sure the conversion can be completed safely within the five-day workshop, some CarryON preparation and fabrication is completed by us in advance.
Your donor frame must be approved by us before the course begins.
Bookings are subject to our Ordering, Warranty & Returns policy, including the course cancellation terms.
Turn an old steel MTB into a genuinely useful cargo bike — and do the conversion yourself.
Leave with your own CarryON cargo frame, ready to finish and build up.
From the CarryON front end to the final installation onto your donor frame.
Cutting, fitting, brazing, alignment and frame modification.
Give an old bike a whole new lease of life — and a completely new purpose.
Build Your Own CarryON is for anyone who wants a CarryON and wants to be properly involved in making it — no prior workshop experience required.
This course is well suited to:
If you enjoy practical work, bikes, and making something you’ll actually use, you’ll fit right in.
If you’re travelling with a complete donor bike, you can agree with us beforehand how much of it needs to arrive assembled versus stripped down.
Arrival is between 9:00–10:00am, with workshop sessions typically starting at 10:00am.
We usually finish around 4:00pm.
The days are hands-on and fairly intense, but we’re flexible where needed and will make sure the conversion progresses safely and steadily through the week.
The course takes place at the Stayer workshop in East London.
If you’re travelling from outside London, Stratford has a good range of nearby hotels, and there are also plenty of Airbnb options in the surrounding area.
Public transport connections are good, and we’ll share detailed location information after booking.
I think this should stay very close in structure to the 101 accordion. That consistency is useful, and the main CarryON page copy above it already does the more emotional/product-led selling.
Tell us what you’d like to build or repair, or simply let us know you’re interested in a future Project Week. We’ll recommend how many days you’ll need, discuss your project, and confirm suitable dates before you book.
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