Shand Cycles: Handbuilt Hoolie

Scottish bike builders Shand Cycles will now build you a 27.5+ bike, should you be looking for a handbuilt-to-order bike to grace your shed.

The Hoolie is a steel bike, modelled roughly on the 29er Bahookie, but designed specifically around 3 inch 27.5 tyres. You still fit 29er wheels if you want to.

The bike is available as a frame and fork package for £1,250 or as a full build with XT components at £2,350. It comes supplied as standard with their own rigid carbon fork but can also be supplied with a 100/120mm travel suspension fork if preferred.

There’s a huge array of colours and finishes to choose from, and you can even add Jeff Jones Loop H-Bars if you’re One Of Them.

Shand Cycles says:

Snappy to ride, the big tyres provide stacks of grip on climbs as well as tech descents and the 68.5 head angle on a lightweight rigid setup provides grins on steeper trails with big volume tyres soaking up the rough stuff. Adding a 120mm suspension fork slackens the geometry a just tad further, only adding to the fun.

Flexibility comes built in with a 73mm PF30 bottom bracket shell that accepts a standard PF30 bottom bracket or EBB (eccentric bottom bracket) for singlespeed setups.

Although designed primarily around tech trails rather than out-and-out mile munching, Shand Cycles reckons this bike’s still good for long distance rides and multi-day tours.

For those of you unfamiliar with Shand Cycles, the bikes take their names from Scots colloquialisms. A Bahookie is your um, bottom. A Hoolie is storm, or a strong wind (not the sort that might exit your bahookie). And a Tumshie is a turnip, and gave rise to possibly the greatest captions ever to grace Singletrackworld.com.

Hannah Dobson

Managing Editor

I came to Singletrack having decided there must be more to life than meetings. I like all bikes, but especially unusual ones. More than bikes, I like what bikes do. I think that they link people and places; that cycling creates a connection between us and our environment; bikes create communities; deliver freedom; bring joy; and improve fitness. They're environmentally friendly and create friendly environments. I try to write about all these things in the hope that others might discover the joy of bikes too.

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