At the start of the week Shand Cycles came to my attention via Twitter – To commemorate Hoy’s seven Olympic medals, Evans Cycles commissioned Shand Cycles to build a bespoke hand-built Keirin Bike for Sir Chris Hoy.
” The pair discussed at length their experience of Japanese Keirin racing and the specifics of the steel track bike, and so the idea to custom-build a unique HOY Keirin bike was born. Chris’s love of the Japanese Keirin was the genesis of this bike and his name in Japanese on the top tube is both out of respect and reference to the importance of the Keirin in his career “
You’ve more then likely seen the Hoy Track bike doing the rounds on all the usual blogs/cycling websites so I won’t reiterate what’s already been said. A fine build none the less but I’d like to pay more attention to the other work Shand have done in the past.
In their ‘About’ section they describe their main cycling passion as ‘go anywhere’ bikes which for me is quite a refreshing/exciting stance on things. There’s so many different types of bicycles these days that it’s easy to get confused as to what’s actually best for the type of riding you do? To have a bike that’s built for anything and with that concept in mind seems like a ‘nail on the head’ thought’.
Shand Cycles offer a range of ‘production frames’ which are all completely customisable and there builds are fillet brazed using Reynolds or Columbus steel tubing.
These bikes give the impression they’ve been built to be ridden in all weathers and exploring any land put in front of them. Even the more road race specific build (above) looks as if it could go deep into the highlands with out any issue.
If you’re looking for versatile ‘go anywhere’ bike I strongly suggest you contact these guys – commuting, long audax rides, off road, X road, enduro etc these chaps seem like they might have something perfect for you!
It’s also worth mentioning they won best off-road award at Bespoke Bristol in 2013 – Hopefully we’ll see them at the Yorkshire Bicycle Show some time in the coming years!
Check out there site – www.shandcycles.com
* I’ll be covering mainly UK frame builders from here onwards but I don’t want to limit myself with what’s going on around the world so it’ll be more or less anything of interest to do with hand built bicycles!
Most of the content will be taken from Websites, Twitter or Instagram – if the details are my own opinions I’ll make that clear! If you’re the said builder I mention and somethings not right it might be because of old content on your site, something you’ve said online or simply a human error! Please, don’t immediately bight my head off… Talk to me and i’ll be happy to amend anything that’s incorrect!*