Donhou Bikes Awarded Best of Show at Handmade Bicycle Show 2011

June 14th, 2011

For Immediate Release – Donhou Bikes Awarded Reynolds Best of Show at Inaugural Handmade & Boutique Bicycle Show 2011. “While sleeping in a tent beside a road in northern China he decided that building bikes was his calling. Now, just over a year later, and with only 14 bikes under his belt, he has been honored with the “best of show” award at Bespoked Bristol, the UK’s inaugural handmade and boutique bicycle show.”

The Bespoked Bristol show saw over 30 exhibitors gathering from around the UK to showcase their latest designs and projects. The stand alone show was set-up to offer the best new brands the chance to exhibit alongside established names and highlight the high quality of frame building and custom bicycle manufacturer currently available in the UK. With every style of bicycle possible on display the show really did have something for everyone and I’m really pleased to say that Donhou Bicycles managed to bag top honors and win ‘The Reynolds Best of Show’ for customer Hampus’s ‘Pimento Stuffed’ town bike. It was a bit of a surprise as the show marked a year in the business for me and being my first show I really wasn’t sure what to expect.

Tim March of The Albion and one of the judges at the show had this to say about the show winning Donhou bike: “Without doubt the Donhou bike was the show stealer, the attention to detail, unique ideas and minimalist lines set it apart from allcomers. A bike that just begged to be ridden as soon as I laid eyes on it, handmade and heavenly.”

It seems that Donhou bikes has come a long way since I dreamt it up laying in my tent at the side of the road somewhere West of Beijing, during an 8000 mile cycle ride from Mongolia to Singapore; across the Gobi Desert and through China and South East Asia.

It was a great weekend with a real sense of community felt by all and hopefully marks the start of great things for all us small builders in the UK. Its good to be back in the workshop though, getting the hands dirty again. I have a real varied selection to be working on and some exciting projects at the moment with more and more orders coming in.