Shepherd’s Bike

The wonderfully varied and creative ways people use bicycles to solve problems, and fit them into their lives is amazing to me. It’s the aspect of cycling, and bicycle design, that most tickles my cockles or whatever the expression is. It’s why I make bikes at all.

Sean is a shepherd, of course. He came to me having seen some of my previous explorations of the mid tail form, wanting a better solution to taking his sheepdog around with him, be it in the fields or while touring. This is a most excellent scheme, and I was on board. Sean and his dog Werner stopped by, tea was drunk and a crate was left at my workshop ready for the build.

There was much tube bending to fit brakes and chains within the rack supports, and I’m pretty pleased with the straight blade twin plate fork crown, with stainless tubed internal dynamo cable routing.

We reused almost all of the parts from Sean’s old bike, and painted the thing in a utilitarian battleship grey. I bashed up some little aluminium mudguards designed to just keep the worst of the field spray out of the eyes, and we made sure there were lights to see down the back lanes. Over the winter, Sean is going to make himself a frame bag to fit in the massive front triangle.

I’m pretty stoked on how this bike turned out, and knowing how much use it’ll get. It’s another bike that fits with my dream for the bicycle: handmade and high quality, but ready to throw in the mud.