A start-up that aims to be Scotland's first international bicycle brand since the demise of the Glasgow-built "Flying Scot" has won a top prize at the UK's leading cycle manufacturing show.
Shand Cycles, which has been manufacturing its high-end steel-framed bikes in Livingston since 2011, took top prize for the best off-road bicycle at Bespoked Bristol 2013, picking up several commissions as a result.
Founded by Steven Shand, 42, and Russell Stout, 44, Shand Cycles makes four different types of road and off-road bikes. It won the award at Bespoked Bristol for its "fat tyre" Stoater, designed for touring and "bike-packing". Others in its range include the Skinnymalinky road bike and the Stooshie cyclo-cross racing bike.
Marketed online and hand-built mainly to order for customers as far afield as Australia, Germany and the United States, Shand bikes cost between £2400 and £4000. The company aims to make and sell up to 150 in 2012-13.
Stout said: "We hope to get to the point where scale will allow us to pre-build shells that can be tweaked to customer requirements, but presently we order stuff in only when we get the commissions.
"We do different builds according to what people want. Customers like the hand-built thing and being small, it's easy for us to do customisation. Some people come with a list of what they want, others we listen to what kind of cycling they want to do with it and add our consultancy.
"We're still finding our feet, but we have a vision of what we need to make, which is shaped by what our customers are telling us, and we're finding what works and doesn't work.
"We are growing organically; we don't want to push too early. We also have a developing aesthetic, finding what it is that make a Shand bike distinctive."
While the centre of the (now all-but-defunct) UK bicycle manufacturing industry was traditionally the English Midlands, Glasgow became known to cyclists internationally through Rattray's pioneering lightweight Flying Scot, an iconic hand-built racing bike. Founded in Townhead in 1900, the firm finally went into liquidation in 1983.
Interest in bikes and cycling in the UK is at an all-time high, largely spurred by the success of homegrown superstars Sir Chris Hoy and Sir Bradley Wiggins.
According to specialist insurer Cyclosure, the UK cycling industry is worth £3 billion a year, with the total number of regular riders reaching 13 million. More than 23,000 people work in cycling, contributing £600 million to the economy in wages and taxes.
Last year, more than £1.5bn was spent on bikes and another £850m on accessories.
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