[Closed] Droooll!!! Shand bike porn.

Porn is rarely grey

The internal stealth routing looks a bit of a gaping hole, why not use something like this to tidy it up? The additional cost can't be much. In fact i'm sure I've seen the little ports below on another shand bike at some point.

[url=

routing port[/url]

Not porn. That cable routing is all sorts of wrong. From a purely practical angle if not from an aesthetic viewpoint, it's ugly and busy and your going to be picking clag out of that lot every time you're out on it.

Should all be routed along the top.

Not for me.

Is internal routing common on steel bikes? Would have thought extra holes in the frame was less appealing than for aluminum /carbon.

What's the point of top tube routing for totally sealed cables?

It's a lovely looking bike, and a bargain for a handmade British frame.

^^^ because it makes it easier to clean the bike and gives you space to stick a crud catcher on there.

not exciting, kind of like a readers wife who is a bit average.

Porn is rarely grey, unless The Pinkster is the target market.

TBH it looks like my bFe in Grey and with bigger wheels, except my bFe has more porn due to the XTR crank.

I like it. I'd go for the orangey brown or the spangly blue. Although I don't need this. No, what I really [s]need[/s] want is a skinnymalinky.

Is internal routing common on steel bikes? Would have thought extra holes in the frame was less appealing than for aluminum /carbon.

[url= http://www.englishcycles.com/cat/custombikes/mountainbikes/ ]English [/url]manage it. IMO they're drool worthy steel frames, don't get Shand, least of all this frame. Very nice. Nothing remotely special though. But maybe I just don't get it.

Looks nice. Looks like a classic MTB to me, which is always good in my book.

Looks nice, but for me the only improvement over the Solaris I have is the finish of the welds and paint.

Also, there's something impossible about the geometry figures, the reach can't possibly be right for those top tube lengths and seat tube angles. You'd be able to see in the photos if it was THAT long.

Doesn't do it for me. I like a neat hardtail but the curved DT and awful cable run, which looks like an afterthought

Njee, internal routing for 3 or 4 cables leaves 2 or 3 holes when you SS it, or 1 or 2 if you 1x and don't use a dropper. You can get cable clips like this for 1-4 cables.
It depends on whether adaptable with external or neat in one set up with redundant plugged holes and a potentially heavier frame (fittings, may use brass tubes internally etc) to cope with it is your thing. I expect you could have either.

Completely agree with Njee (for once)!
It NEEDS internal cable routing to be special and warrant the price tag in my opinion.
I think it could of done with either sliding dropouts and no EBB or EBB and built in rear.

A bit more work and it would be on top of my list.

I think its already been mentioned(!) but the cable routing does look pish.

The bolt on cable guides are a nice touch but the routing layout looks like an afterthought.

For the money it leaves me feeling a little meh.

Wouldn't you spend the extra and go fully custom?

Is that 26, or just a large frame?

BB cable routing makes sense for an 'adventure' frame since it's (slightly) easier to carry without cables on the top tube.

It's also easier to use a frame bag if the cables aren't run inside the front triangle.

Looks good to me.
Price seems very reasonable for a handbuilt semi-custom frame.
Cable routing makes sense for a few reasons.
I'm not a fan of downtube bends aesthetically, but as the default is straight, there must have been enough good reasons to move away from it.

bencooper - Member

What's the point of top tube routing for totally sealed cables?

It looks a billion times nicer?

Did someone mention bike porn?

[img] [/img]

[img] [/img]

http://pedalitout.com/post/104751569450/stunning-bling-fireflybicycles-moser-inspired

I think the routing is probably based on changing between derailleurs and a Rohloff. I was vaguely thinking of a custom frame recently which would have to be able to run both and running the cables the way Shand have gives the best aesthetics in terms of not seeing unused cable guides. I also figured I'd want bolt on guides and space them on the down tube to also accept a crud catcher and a third bottle cage.

[quote=jameso ]It's also easier to use a frame bag if the cables aren't run inside the front triangle.
Works for me. What's the issue?

That road bike's horrible! Really nasty colour scheme. The OP hardtail's OK, though nothing special.

I think my issue isn't necessarily just the routing, I understand the practicalities associated with that. It's more that it looks like it's been done badly - the cables are lumpy and aren't sitting flush to the tube at all.

Straighten them first, pull them tighter, photoshop it for all I care, but it jumps out and makes the bike look untidy.

Works for me. What's the issue?

I think my issue isn't necessarily just the routing, I understand the practicalities associated with that. It's more that it looks like it's been done badly - the cables are lumpy and aren't sitting flush to the tube at all.

Straighten them first, pull them tighter, photoshop it for all I care, but it jumps out and makes the bike look untidy.

Fully agree, just looks carelessly done, which shouldn't be the case for a professional build put together for a photoshoot.

Ditto the missing valve cap, and personally I'd have put the tyres on with the writing the correct way up.

I realise a lot of folk really don't care, but if you're doing the 'semi custom built bike porn' angle, and they seem to elicit those feelings, then that really matters IMO.

I bet in the flesh that looks the nuts!
Where else can you get a frame like that for that price??

Where else can you get a frame like that for that price??

[url= http://www.xacd.com.cn/about.htm ]Here?[/url] Well, that one could have whatever cable routing you want, and whatever geometry you want.

But I won't say Shand, so not as valuable.

Can someone please point out what is so exceptional about this frame for the price? It's an off the shelf, £1000, steel frame with swapable dropouts? Ignore the name, what is it that makes it so incredible?

@njee20 you're a cheery bloke aren't you?

Immensely!

I've said that your bikes look great, just don't understand what makes them exceptional and worthy of the cooing? Genuinely don't understand. But I've got respect for anyone who comes onto the forum to talk about their own products, so you've just moved up in my estimation, which I'm sure will please you greatly!

@njee20 well, I had removed you from my Christmas card list but I've just put you back on. So we're all good.

Next step, a Shand sponsored team for Njee to race under 😉

But I've got respect for anyone who comes onto the forum to talk about their own products

Must've missed that bit, looked like he just came onto the forum to call you grumpy 😉

Actualy I think that despite sounding harsh it's soundly based criticism.

Lets be having it blah blah.

The XI'AN web page certainly fills me with confidence. I really was overcome with excitement.

As with most things, its exactly what some are looking for & not for others.

Interesting....
I think the valve cap is clear as opposed to missing? 😉

[img] [/img]

beautiful bike, exceptional attention to detail, but a grand for a steel hard tail is way out of my price range

That would normally be my kind of bike and similar but also not keen on the cable routing. I've always found that sort of cable routing has higher friction and cruds up quicker than top tube routed. I've lusted over a few Shand bikes but no thanks to that.

Needs a grommet on the cable exit hole on the seattube...!

Well in simple terms, STW is the market that Shand is looking to be in rather than your Halfords buyers, therefore he may well be unhappy with the comments, however obviously has to take the criticism onboard and the ideas/thoughts of STW.

I'd imgagine a reasonable chunk of buyers of things like his frames are going to have been around STW.

Interesting....
I think the valve cap is clear as opposed to missing?

Then I change my criticism to be that it should have matching valve caps 😉

exceptional attention to detail

Can someone point this out, please!? I genuinely want to understand what I'm missing! What about the frame exhibits exceptional attention to detail?

Must've missed that bit, looked like he just came onto the forum to call you grumpy

😆

I said earlier I wasn't going to get involved but since I'm here.... 🙂

I think a lot of the comments here are good. If we release a new bike and people moan about the colour, less than stellar cable runs and missing valve caps then I'll take that as a positive from the STW crowd!

The cable run isn't great on those pictures. I am sold however on downtube cable routing. For chainstay mounted brakes I just think it's cleaner. I also like all the cables together. Someone else mentioned it earlier but one of the main reasons we did it like that was for versatility. We supply various guides so you can run between 1 and 4 cables without it looking like a mess. In hindsight, when we were putting that bike together for 4 cables, we should probably have taken more time getting it right. I'm not excusing it but we were in a bit of a rush as we wanted to get the pics done before taking the demo bike down to the Spin London show at the weekend.

Other points :

Colour, well we have a palette of nearly 25 colours and if none of those are any good you can get a completely custom colour.

Crudguard mount. We could do this. We do it quite often on our Stoater and we have some little stand-offs that mean the crudguard sits nicely above the cable guides. We make use of one of the existing cable guide bosses. Perhaps we should just do that as standard??

Valve caps. Not sure what you guys are going on about. There's clearly no missing valve caps. I can plainly see 2. Those original pics linked to by the OP must be corrupted in some way. There's no way we would have missed that as it's a poor reflection on what we do and the logical inference would be that if we can't put a valve cap on, then all the welds will break.

Bent down tube. I know this is not everyone's cup of tea. My one major problem with 29ers is having the front end too high. This isn't so much a problem with bigger frames but on medium (and smaller) frames it can be. The bent downtube gives us clearance for forks and allows us to keep the headtube shorter.

I actually thought the price was pretty good. If you're interested in the provenance of the products you buy and you want to be more involved in the process of having a bike like this rather than just buying something mass produced then I think the cost is ok. I feel pretty comfortable with it. I know we can't compete with imported frames and we don't try to. I think it's a different product altogether. I was quite surprised at the cost of the Niner actually.

Happy to answer any other questions on here or individually.

One last thing. I hate, hate, hate the word 'porn'. I can't ****ing stand it, especially when applied to bike stuff and it makes my blood boil when I see it attached to a frame with my name on it.

Nicely said.