Willow Bikes

[shand]

Hey, I'm getting ready to start building again under a different brand. I think I have the workshop pretty much sorted and hope to have things up and running within the next 2 or 3 weeks. I'd love to carry on documenting stuff on this forum (I like have a record of what's happening) but doing it in this thread seems wrong as Shand Cycles as a business still exists. The new brand is 'Willow', could I (or someone) start a new Smoked Out thread for the new brand?

https://www.willowbike.com/

Cheers

[j44ke]

Hi Steven! Best of luck with the new venture. We look forward to hearing all about it. And seeing more great bikes!

[sk_tle]

Hi Steven, what are your plan under that brand. Will you only focus on one kind of bike with semi-standardized configurations/models or do you plan to build whatever the customer is looking for, be it road, mtb, gravel, mount bosses here and there, etc?

[e-RICHIE]

Steven

Looking forward to 2.0 and all it entails.

[shand]

Thanks guys, really looking forward to getting going again. Setting up a workshop from scratch now is so different to doing it 20 years when I knew nothing!

Hi Steven, what are your plan under that brand. Will you only focus on one kind of bike with semi-standardized configurations/models or do you plan to build whatever the customer is looking for, be it road, mtb, gravel, mount bosses here and there, etc?

To be frank, I'm not sure. My plan really is to have no plan.

I realise that with my last brand, I really missed the interaction with the customer. We were super efficient and narrowed down choices all with the aim of limiting admin time. And to be fair that worked and it achieved what we were trying to do but it definitely felt we were a little too removed from the customer. I'd like to get back to that.

I'm not really into race bikes much anymore but I do appreciate a nice road bike so I'm sure I'll be doing some of that. I really also like nice riding, everyday recreational bikes. I'm an admirer of what Grant at Rivendell does. I'm not sure the UK would support high-end bikes in that style. Maybe.

I have a couple of bikes I want to build for myself and people are already asking for stuff so I think for the first year or so I'll go into it with an open mind and see what I enjoy doing. My previous attempt at doing this was definitely about building a sustainable business where we could make things with a provenance and employ good people. It was about building a business. This time around it's much more about finding something that makes me happy. My new workshop is at home, I have no plans to expand. If I can pay the bills with a handful of bikes then that will be enough for me.

Will keep you all updated.

[Too Tall]

Hey, I'm getting ready to start building again under a different brand. I think I have the workshop pretty much sorted and hope to have things up and running within the next 2 or 3 weeks. I'd love to carry on documenting stuff on this forum (I like have a record of what's happening) but doing it in this thread seems wrong as Shand Cycles as a business still exists. The new brand is 'Willow', could I (or someone) start a new Smoked Out thread for the new brand?

https://www.willowbike.com/

Cheers

Check your PM.

[shand]

hey,

I'm going to start posting and contributing here again. I do look in and see what's going on every week or so but haven't got round to posting anything yet. Things are going pretty good since I started building again under the Willow brand. Getting about a frame a week done which is just a little more than I can manage, especially as mostly it's full bikes going out. I still do a couple of other consultancy/design gigs but I'm hoping to wind those down and concentrate on building for the most part. I also need to get much better at remembering to take pics!

bus1.jpg

bus3.jpg

kabuni1.jpg

kabuni3.jpg

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[robin3mj]

Welcome back!

I see a cool yellow Shand commuting here occasionally in Virginia. If we ever manage to move to England or Ireland for a bit, you’re definitely on my radar.

[steve garro]

Looking good, man !

- Garro.

[j44ke]

Nice!

[Rody]

Good to see you being hands on again...stoke that flame Steven!

[shand]

This weekend saw the 2nd year of the Brazin' Handbuilt Bike show held in Scotland (Glasgow). It was great. When I first started building there was only really one other person that had been doing any framebuilding stuff in Scotland, so to have enough builders operating now that can support a show like this is amazing. Such a great little community.

Paul Skilbeck had someone there taking pictures and doing some chatting and as a result he's got a post up on the Handbuilt Bicycle News website : https://www.handbuiltbicyclenews.com...how-highlights

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[shand]

SAS08608.jpg

Finally finished up the headbadges I've been working on.

[steve garro]

SAS08608.jpg

Finally finished up the headbadges I've been working on.

Those are super elegant !

- Garro.

[sk_tle]

The headbage is lovely.

Are all your bikes named after desserts? Your favorites or based on how the name sounds?

[shand]

The headbage is lovely.

Are all your bikes named after desserts? Your favorites or based on how the name sounds?

Yes, desserts of the world. Mostly I just like how the names look and sound.