At the mid-point of the Glasgow Commonwealth Games, HOY has unveiled a bespoke hand-built keirin bike, made for Britain’s most successful Olympian, Sir Chris Hoy, by Scottish independent bicycle manufacturer Shand.
The bike was commissioned to commemorate Hoy’s seven Olympic medals following a meeting between Hoy and Steven Shand in Edinburgh last year, during which the pair discussed their love of keirin.
Keirin is one of the track’s most curious events – a Japenese-devised sprint race that begins with riders being paced behind a motorised bike. The event became an Olympic event in 2000 and saw Hoy become champion in both the 2008 and 2012 Olympics.
Keirin bikes are simple fixed-gear, brakeless track machines and this Shand model features traditional steel tubing and geometry specced by Hoy himself. The bike also features the Olympian’s name in Japanese along the top tube, along with a gorgeous paintjob.
HOY bike designer, James Olson, said: “Sometimes costs and timelines have to take a step aside to allow for new methods to shape the brand’s product development. It’s a process that is different to our usual production bike design and realisation methods, and one that we’re excited to see the end results of.”
HOY has also hinted that the bike may be the basis for further development in the area, so we could be seeing steel models joining HOY’s aluminium track range in the future.