Steven sold it a while back.

Sorry. It was a poor attempt at humour (clicking my username will make more sense).

I can only speculate as to why Shand is part of the “group”

Me too. If you find out, let me know.

Apparently the EU version will be rated  for Towing and roof loads. See my post on previous page.

One can only imagine they’ll bring the same version to the UK

Oops, sorry, didn’t spot that.

I looked at the MG5 as it seemed like one of the few affordable EV estates. I especially liked this dumbfuckery :

MG5 EV is not permitted for use with roof bars. The rails fitted to MG5 EV Exclusive models are for decorative purposes only. Roof bars should not be fitted to this vehicle.

@seventy is that the red one down in Carlisle that has been for sale for months now?

No, it’s the actual one in the article linked above.

@seventy got any more details? That looks rather nice!

PM me and I’ll pass on his details.

My mate is selling one of these. In fact I think it’s the actual one used in these photos

https://singletrackworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/shand-cycles-handbuilt-hoolie/

Super niche (a few were built as a new lineup in the range but never made it as a production model) and very, very nice.

If I went custom I’d want to retain handling whilst dropping BB 10mm, lengthening head tube 20mm, and also increasing reach 10mm.

That’s not going to happen.

Rake is the head tube angle.

Given that we’re on a bicycle forum, I’d say that was wrong. If we were on a motorcycle forum then I’d agree. Rake in motorcycles is also measured in a different way from the equivalent head-angle on bicycles. Your example image above illustrates this. That would be a rake of somewhere in the region of 30º which would be even more confusing if used in the bicycle world. Bicycles use the supplementary angle in this case of 60º. I also think they have the description of the two types of trail confused. Mechanical trail is always a perpendicular distance from the ground to the steering axis, not how it’s shown on that diagram.

If you’ve totally made up your mind then fair enough but if you really fancy a Shand and the only thing putting you off is getting the sizing right then I’d take a second look. I think about 95% of all sales are to people that don’t get to the workshop to try anything. There is a really good remote sizing and fitting process in place and all the support you need for getting your own measurements correct as well as measurements from and comments about, any existing bikes.  We have a very good record for making sure the fit is spot on and we have a ton of experience with women cyclists in particular. If you need more info or any additional guidance, drop me an email (steven@shandcycles.com). If you’re already sold on the Sonder then good luck, it’s a good value for money bike and I’m sure you’ll get along with it fine.

Shand will do a you a full custom geometry Bahookie at no extra cost. As an attempt to get more women riding bikes, especially ones that fit properly, this process has been running for a few years now. Not properly advertised but tell them Steven said it’s fine! Plus you get to choose any colour you can think of.

If you want to go for Wildcat bags enter code stw21 at the checkout and get 20% off. Runs until the end of this month.

I find it totally bizarre that people are happy to send a decent chunk of cash out for something before checking that they can even communicate with the vendor. I’d want to make sure I had a phone number and that they’d at least answer it if I called them. I think things taking a long time to be built and arrive is fine (I’ve been there as a struggling supplier) as long as the communication is good.

The idea that there is a box with some frames in it somewhere and one might be yours, but it’s ok because some bloke called Luke that you chat to on Facebook every couple of weeks says it’ll probably be fine…

Is the down tube a different type of steel to the rest of the frame? Looks a different colour to the rest of the tubes.

When the tubes are drawn at the factory, they have a mill scale on them, a dirty black residue. Before shipping, Columbus run the tubes through a centreless grinder/polisher to clean them up a bit. That downtube has a bend in it which prevents it getting cleaned up (won’t run through the polisher) so it’s shipped with the mill scale. Otherwise the material is the same. The ends get mechanically cleaned for welding and the whole frame is media blasted before paint so the difference in finish doesn’t mean anything.

If the forks are ti with a ti steerer then it may just be that the forks have a bigger ID than a steel fork and the nut isn’t quite the right size. Some star nuts are bigger than others. I’ve always used CK star nuts with lightweight steerers (thin wall) as their OD is slightly larger than most others.

Also, the BB threads have been chased by a professional

Assuming the professional used professional tooling to chase the threads, any significant mis-alignment would have shown up then. Decent BB thread chasing tools are in 2 parts, designed specifically to make sure the threads are in fact aligned.

What frame material?

It is a Specialized Pizza Rack and from memory it was just stuck on for a show. The forks have triple eyelets for anything cages as well as standard lowmount fittings so it’ll take pretty much any front rack out there.

Shand Tam

Depending on how much space the items take up and how you want to ship them, a general fulfilment centre could do all that for you. Somewhere like MyWarehouse : https://www.orderfulfilment.co.uk/ maybe?

853 is a heat-treated tube. It’s actually exactly the same composition as a 631 tube. The number doesn’t have anything to do with the composition.  Once the 631 tube is drawn and shaped, some get sent out for heat-treatment (not done in house). When those 631 tubes comeback from treatment they’re now 853. I *think* the 853 originally came from one of the temps used at the heat-treat stage.

FWIW, to answer your original question, adding heat to the tube in order to further process/shape it, isn’t really a good idea.  You want to do that stuff cold.

Not sure if you’re aware or not but the Rizello includes full custom fit/sizing in the price. Although there are geometry charts, they’re really just for guidance.

As I said, not completely impartial but it really is a great ride. When I designed it, I wanted it to be proper fast road bike but still with the comfort of a steel frame.

I’m not sure if any have gone out for review yet. It’s not a huge seller for Shand, it’s a little different from what we’re normally known for but if you want something a little different that you can have input into things like fit/size as well as colours (30 standard colours, unlimited custom colours/designs), you can’t get much better. For colour and paint design inspiration you could take a look at our painters Instagram account :

https://www.instagram.com/paintedbyeuan/

I’ve got one! Maybe not the unbiased input you were looking for though!

https://www.instagram.com/p/B4fHZxKlXR3/

You don’t need someone with a jig (not a frame jig anyway), you need someone with an alignment table or alignment system to make sure any changes made to the frame are in the right direction. I’d be amazed if this isn’t something that could be ‘persuaded’ back by hand. If we assume it was straight to begin with then correcting whatever happened should be relatively straightforward. Something like a Park FAG-2 tool and a set of H-Tools for the dropout combined with a solid vice to clamp the BB and it shouldn’t be too big a job. You might find a shop to do it rather than a framebuilder. Where are you based?

What really does surprise me is that no-one has yet put out an e-bike drive with integrated gearbox.

https://www.intra-drive.com/

I’ll be hanging out on the Shand stand if anyone wants to come and say hi. We have Tunnocks.

@seventy is the Ocelot going to be available?

Yes it will. There will also be new version of the Ocelot designed more for the lighter weight (more roady) side of things. It’ll be narrower to work better with the lower q-factor on road bikes. Zipped access on one side only and slightly shallower too.

Eagerly awaiting what Wildcat are going to offer but no teasers yet on social media?

Relaunched products are at least 10 weeks away. These are mostly tweaked products that sold very well previously. Newer additions to the range will be into 2020 now.

What’s the word on dropper compliant saddle bags available in Europe?

Love my Bikepack.pl Repack, but it’s a no go with a dropper, even with a Valais

The new Wildcat Tiger rear harness will be dropper compatible (with Valais or similar) but is still about 10 weeks away.