shand cycles, framebuilding, steel, scottish, made in britain, hardtail

A Look Inside Shand Cycles

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Chipps and Wil spend an hour or so with the enigmatic Scottish framebuilding empire…

It’s hard to know what to expect when you knock on the door of a small framebuilder. Especially a company like Shand Cycles, one that occupies the perceived area of reputation somewhere north of ‘Man in a shed’ and somewhere south of ‘mass production’, or even batch production.

And so, Wil and I found ourselves in a reasonably nondescript industrial estate in Livingstone – the grey strip of flats and industrial units between Glasgow and Edinburgh – last month and, without having called ahead to make sure they’d got a fresh pot of coffee on, just popped in.

shand cycles, framebuilding, steel, scottish, made in britain, hardtail
Steven Shand, one half of the masterminds behind the Shand name.
shand cycles, framebuilding, steel, scottish, made in britain, hardtail
Models awaiting their glamour shots. (Click pics to expand)

You’re right into the action as soon as you’re through the door. A space, much larger than some visitors expect and much smaller than some others do, greets you. There is no antechamber, no calm, quiet mezzanine offices for paperwork and filing, there is just framebuilding.

A quick glance at Shand’s ‘About us‘ page will show you that Shand started at just Steven, in a shed in 2003, making one-off custom frames – some road, some cyclocross and some mountain bikes. The brand seemed to soon get a reputation as the one to get if you wanted some adventure. Whether that was fully loaded touring, this newfangled ‘bikepacking’ thing (AKA touring), or riding road bikes off road (AKA touring) then Shand could make you the bike you wanted.

An expansion in 2011, with a new business partner, Russell Stout, meant a move to bigger premises, more staff, more machines and more production capacity. All the frames are still made one by one though, and production rarely drops enough to allow Shand to make actual stock – though the range has settled down nicely to eight or so base models.

shand cycles, framebuilding, steel, scottish, made in britain, hardtail
Reassuringly, everyone at Shand still has all their fingers.
shand cycles, framebuilding, steel, scottish, made in britain, hardtail
Chainstays ready for the chop.

On your left as you step through the door, there’s a rack of test bikes and staff bikes and some packing boxes. To your immediate right is the ‘office’ – a couple of desks side by side with phones, a grubby computer and some magazines and paperwork. There’s probably even a fax machine under there.

Right ahead of you, though, is where the magic happens. Take three steps into the room and you can see the whole operation, from start to finish, as the five or so employees work around you as if you weren’t there.

shand cycles, framebuilding, steel, scottish, made in britain, hardtail
Shows like Bespoked (where Shand won the grit.cx choice award) are all a part of it.
shand cycles, framebuilding, steel, scottish, made in britain, hardtail
A rare view of Matt without his welding helmet on as he checks a frame in the jig.

There’s a tactile buzz in the air. There’s a sense, not of urgency, but of industry. Tubes are being mitred on the machines by the left wall, a complete bike is being cabled up on our right while the full time frame painter, Euan, is prepping a frame and a fork for a matching paintjob.

Ahead, the steady pulsing glow behind the screens says that Matt is hard at work at the TIG welder. Russell, the co-owner is busy fielding calls and emails from customers that could be down the road or as far away as Japan. And in among them all is the slight, energetic, twinkly-eyed man that gives the business its name, Steven Shand.

shand cycles, framebuilding, steel, scottish, made in britain, hardtail
No wonder there’s a waiting list if Steven chats to everyone as much as he did to us…
shand cycles, framebuilding, steel, scottish, made in britain, hardtail
Is that your box?

As we walk in, he’s at one of the machines, preparing some of the endless little bits and pieces that inevitably take much of the time and get none of the limelight in the fickle world of hand-crafted bike frames. Steven spent an hour or so, taking us through the process at Shand, from order to final bike.

It all starts with the order and the deposit. Once your order is confirmed, you get a box with your name on. This box will hold all of the frame tubes for your order, plus details of any extra bits and pieces (one of the good/bad things about making everything in the UK is that every frame is effectively custom made for each customer. Want six bottle bosses? Want a downtube shifter on your mountain bike? It can all be done…). As frames move through the process, your box gets nearer to the production date. You get a last confirmation and then sharp things start happening to the tubes.

shand cycles, framebuilding, steel, scottish, made in britain, hardtail
Made by riders, for riders then…
shand cycles, framebuilding, steel, scottish, made in britain, hardtail
Callum mitring some seatstays. The bead blaster is to his left, for stripping and prepping frames.
shand cycles, framebuilding, steel, scottish, made in britain, hardtail
Even custom orders like this S&S coupling breakaway bike are possible.
shand cycles, framebuilding, steel, scottish, made in britain, hardtail
Lovely, lovely welding on show.

The tubes are mitred in house and then they go to Matt Stitt, Shand’s main framebuilder. Matt comes from an engineering background and originally came in to do all of those ‘Can you just’ jobs that Steven didn’t have time for, but it was quickly evident that Matt was a natural framebuilder, welder and fabricator so Steven wisely took a step back and let Matt do the bulk of the framebuilding.

Watching Matt work was impressive. Quick, methodical and with some lovely welds evident on the frames that were then ready for braze-ons and prep before painting.

shand cycles, framebuilding, steel, scottish, made in britain, hardtail
And this, Wil, is where the mud goes.
shand cycles, framebuilding, steel, scottish, made in britain, hardtail
A peek behind the wizard’s welding curtain to see Matt at work.

Paint is another thing that is done 100% in-house by Euan. He preps all of the frames (not to mention the ‘oh, and can you do my fork to match’ jobs) and mixes and shoots the wet paint in the tiny spray-booth at the back of the frame shop. Over 30 colours are available off the shelf, with metallics, flamboyants and other custom colours available for an extra charge. Even the decals are stencilled painted on.

Steven shows us a burnt-orange metallic frame that had been ordered to match a Crayola crayon. It’s reasons like this that the brand seems to have a cult following around the world. There aren’t many made in the UK framebuilders and even fewer that will accept as many “Can you just…” requests as Shand does.

shand cycles, framebuilding, steel, scottish, made in britain, hardtail
Euan preps a customer’s fork for a collar and cuffs paint match on a frame and fork.
shand cycles, framebuilding, steel, scottish, made in britain, hardtail
That colour, right there. We’ll take it!
shand cycles, framebuilding, steel, scottish, made in britain, hardtail
All frames get an individual number plate. No sticker barcodes to be found.
shand cycles, framebuilding, steel, scottish, made in britain, hardtail
Want a colour? They’ve probably got it.
shand cycles, framebuilding, steel, scottish, made in britain, hardtail
A frame drying in the tiny, but spotless paint room
shand cycles, framebuilding, steel, scottish, made in britain, hardtail
Is that love in your eye there, Steven?
shand cycles, framebuilding, steel, scottish, made in britain, hardtail
Steel, steel, steel, carbon…

The sight of a Shand Oykel hanging up prompts a chat about this slightly left-field addition to the line. At around 250 frames a year, Shand is pretty maxed out in terms of what it can build in the UK in its current facility. In order to expand the business, it needs to either look to make more frames (and a jump of 50 or so a year wouldn’t be worth the additional work, so it’d have to almost double to make it worthwhile moving to a new, bigger workshop), or it needs to look at the ‘Designed here, made in Taiwan’ approach, which so many other companies have done.

Given that its frames like the Hoolie and Bahookie aren’t too far off prices for a made in Taiwan frame, it made sense to look at doing a carbon frame for riders who wanted something a bit different and the Oykel certainly fits in with that unconventional look and feel that all Shand frames proudly display. However, even Steven admits that by making the Oykel (all of which are inspected and hand painted in the frame shop in Livingstone) it seems to have focussed everyone’s attention back on to the company’s UK-made steel bikes and orders for that ‘none-more-custom’ kind of adventure-bike-with-Rohloff-and-belt-drive bikes like the Drove have never been better.

shand cycles, framebuilding, steel, scottish, made in britain, hardtail
Fraser’s world.
shand cycles, framebuilding, steel, scottish, made in britain, hardtail
Cabling. Even if you do it every day, you never actually love that bit.
shand cycles, framebuilding, steel, scottish, made in britain, hardtail
Steven holds the frame whose colour was inspired by a Crayola crayon.

With instructions to call ahead for fresh coffee next time, we leave the workshop and head south, slightly more knowledgeable about the name behind the brand, the faces behind the bikes and the bikes behind the reputation. We’re hoping to get a Shand in on test in the New Year, so stay tuned and see how we get on.

shandcycles.com

Chipps Chippendale

Singletrackworld's Editor At Large

With 22 years as Editor of Singletrack World Magazine, Chipps is the longest-running mountain bike magazine editor in the world. He started in the bike trade in 1990 and became a full time mountain bike journalist at the start of 1994. Over the last 30 years as a bike writer and photographer, he has seen mountain bike culture flourish, strengthen and diversify and bike technology go from rigid steel frames to fully suspended carbon fibre (and sometimes back to rigid steel as well.)

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