February 21.12 – Bespoked Bristol 2012

Bespoked Bristol is coming around quick! We’re currently hard at it getting everything together for the show with some very exciting bikes coming together, expect to see more Donhou town bikes, road bikes and tourers…

Last year was an amazing show, we had such a good time meeting everyone and talking shop with all the other builders and of course winning “Best of Show” was a real treat also! This year is set to be even bigger and better, really looking forward to it. If you’re going be sure to stop by and say hi…

February 14.12 – Maartje’s Commuter

Maartje is a lucky girl this Valentines with her boyfriend having commissioned this beautiful step through commuter for her. Hope you’re happy with it Maartje!

Maartje’s old bike was nick named the “Truck” and a very fitting name for it, a big, heavy, Dutch style bike. She loved it, but it was time for her to get something a little bit lighter and faster, something that would deal with the commute but also a bike that would allow her and a her boyfriend to go off on light touring holidays. Maartje liked the Trucks sit up and beg style and its load carrying ability and she new that she wanted a super clean and minimal design from her new one, this bike is about simplicity and function.

The frame is built from Reynolds 631 and features full internal cable routing with the rear brake being routed right the way through and up and out of the disc brake stay support. The forks also feature internal cabling. We used Paragon sliding dropouts to allow easy wheel removal knowing that the belt will always be at the correct tension.

The bike runs a belt driven Alfine 11 hub, Avid BB7 cable discs, Paul levers, ladies B17 saddle, Nitto Northroad bars, with a selection of Velo Orange parts to finish as well as a colour matched Tubus rear rack.

Many happy miles Maartje…

More pics in the Gallery.

January 30.12 – Instagram

Donhou Bicycles is now using Instagram. Search for us using donhoubicycles to be kept up to date with the latest build shots from the workshop and anything else that takes our fancy…

January 11.12 - Alasdair’s Expedition Bike

Here is another TIG welded expedition frame and fork ready to leave the workshop, bound for South Korea where Alasdair is currently living and riding. Check out his blog here if you would like to get a little insight into riding in that part of the world.

This frame will see duties touring around South Korea but Alasdair is also planning a larger expedition and hopefully this bike will be seeing some fully loaded miles across the ‘Great Land’ – Alaska. For that reason this frame is built tough with plenty of clearance for snowy conditions. There is a full array of braze ons and a large chain stay plate to mount the Pletscher twin kickstand. Some off the shelf frames suffer from crushed chain stays when this stand is used fully loaded. By spreading the load across a large area this won’t be a problem on this frame and Alasdair can use this great stand with confidence.

Finished with clear over British Racing Green powder, this bike is ready to load up and get gnarly! Happy riding Alasdair…

December 24.11 – Reynolds 931

Look what Santa bought me. Limited quantities are available and I was lucky enough to get hold of some of it. Reynolds brand new 931 stainless tubes. These are bound for a sweet road build starting in the new year…

Would also just like to take this opportunity to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year and say a massive thankyou to everyone that has helped, supported or spread the good word this past year. Donhou Bicycles wouldn’t be what it is without you.

December 6.11 – Photography From the Exhibition

Just incase you didn’t get to make it down to the exhibition last month, here are a few of Hal Shinnie’s photos from the show… Will put a few more in the next newsletter so if you want to see more, sign up!

November 28.11 – Dominic’s 29er

This is the first Donhou 29er to roll out of the workshop. Built with a Reynolds 853 DZB front end and a Columbus rear, it features custom Donhou dropouts, wishbone rear end, braze on stainless badges, internal cable routing and super minimal bar stem combo. Its dressed in the UK’s finest; Hope hubs, bottom bracket and brakes and Middleburn cranks. With other parts including the Thomson post, Chris King headset, Fizik Gobi Kium saddle and Continental Race King tyres. Finished in a dark slate grey pearl this bike looks awesome!

Dominic will be riding this in the Transpyr, an 8 day race through the Pyrenees from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic along the border of France and Spain. To do it single speed is die hard, good on you Dominic my kind of mentality, give it hell!

More pics in the Gallery.

November 11.11 – Donhou Exhibition

Was a great opening night last Thursday down at Look Mum No Hands, thanks to everyone that came down, hope you all had fun. Here’s a few pics of the exhibition I took when it was little quieter, with some sneak shots of a couple of bikes still waiting to go in the studio.

Hal’s photographs look great as well, telling the story of some of the frames from the show being built…

The exhibition runs until the 17th November, stop in and grab a coffee over the weekend, there’s still plenty of time to go take a look.

November 8.11 – Greg’s Road Bike

Greg’s frame is built from Reynolds 853 Pro Team, Reynolds top end super light steel tubing with 725 oversized chain stays and Columbus over sized seat stays. This makes for a real light yet stiff frame, as one of the key things for this build was to have a bike that climbed well.

As inspiration for paint Greg gave me a heap of photos of old 60′s race cars and Grand Prix bikes. We decided in the end to use these as colour reference, well one particular car… yep you guessed it, Greg was in love with the Gulf Porsche! I then used those colours in a more contemporary way, more in keeping with the frame design and the components going on it. We are both real happy with how the paint has come out, looking awesome with all the carbon parts on it.

Components include, USE and Ritchey finishing gear, Flite saddle, Easton fork, Dura Ace group set and a super light FSA carbon tubular wheel set… This things a quick one!

If you want to see this one in the flesh, it’s on display in Look Mum No Hands until the 17th November.

More pics in the Gallery.

October 28.11 – Stems

Custom stem week this week. First up is a pair of fillet brazed 1 1/8th quill stems for a customer’s retro MTB builds. These look great having taken inspiration from the classic GT stem from the 90′s using the pierced style construction. They are also front loading as the customer will be using four piece Luv bars.

Next up is this cute little fillet brazed clamp on stem, which will be dealing with steering duties on Gav’s new tourer. More on that bike very soon…