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TECH NEWS
Just in: Donhou DSS1 Performance Disc Road Bike
One of the names turning heads in the vibrant custom frame building market at the moment is Tom Donhou, with his self-titled brand Donhou Bicycles. If you've visited the Bespoked UK Handbuilt shows in previous years you’ll have seen his bikes, with the likes of the Rapha Continental disc-equipped steel road bike turning many heads.
Donhou has recently launched Signature Steel and this DSS1 is the first release in the new range. It’s a bike inspired by the Rapha Continental bike from a couple of years ago, and the many similar customer bikes Donhou has built in a similar mould in the years since.
"When we built the disc braked Rapha Continental bike which debuted at Bespoked a couple of years ago, we were ahead of the curve introducing discs onto a road build," says Tom Donhou speaking at Bespoked last year. "Since then some would say that that bike has almost become a reference point for other disc road builds."
Each of Donhou’s regular creations are bespoke frames crafted for individual requirements, but Tom Donhou felt there was an opportunity to offer a series of stock frames for those cyclists wanting a Donhou frame but perhaps not requiring the custom treatment. And though numbers will still be limited, the waiting time should be a fair bit shorter than the long waiting list for a custom Donhou frame.
So unlike his custom frames, the DSS1 here is available only in three stock sizes, paint and geometry. It makes owning a Donhou more accessible and it may be you don’t need, or desire, a fully custom frame, but still want something a little special and made in the UK. The frame is still made by Donhou to the same exacting standards and can be bought as a frameset with an Enve fork and Chris King headset for £2,295, or this complete bike for £4,385.
The DSS1 features a TIG welded Reynolds 853 Pro Team frame, with custom selected tube diameters and butting profiles to provide the desired ride quality. It’s available in three sizes (54, 56 and 58cm) and is built around an Enve fork and fitted with a Chris King Inset 8 headset in the 44mm head tube. Cable routing is external, with the brake and gear cables passing along the underside of the down tube. A Di2 compatible option is available. The frame is provided with a five year warranty.
Geometry for the 56cm we’ve got our hands on includes 73 degree head and seat angles, a 56cm top tube, 410mm chainstays, 170mm head tube and 43mm fork rake.
The DDS1 is sold as a frameset for £2,295, or a complete bike like what we have here, costing £4,385. That gets you a Shimano Ultegra mechanical groupset, Chris King headset, Enve 2.0 fork, Chris King R45 hubs on H+Son Archetype wheels built by August Wheelworks, and Continental Grand Prix 25mm tyres - there’s clearance for 28mm tyres if you wanted to go wider. Finishing kit is Fizik Cyrano with an Ardea Versus saddle, and brakes are Avid BB7 SLs. The finer details, such as stem length, handlebar width and gearing, can be customised.
Weight on the road.cc scales is 8.7kg (19.1lb). That's comparable to some carbon disc-equipped road bikes we've tested, which isn't bad considering it has a steel frame.
Along with the stock tubing and sizes, you get a choice of one paint job, but what a paint job it is. The base colour is a deep granite grey with a pink to lime pearl fade along the length of the down tube, with a white panel near the down tube. It’s painted in-house. There’s a Signature Steel head badge featuring the Donhou Swallows.
It’s a frame designed for riding all day in comfort with a forgiving ride quality that places fun at the top of the list of important criteria, and I'm about to hit the road and get the miles in and find out just what it's like.
David worked on the road.cc tech team from 2012-2020. Previously he was editor of Bikemagic.com and before that staff writer at RCUK. He's a seasoned cyclist of all disciplines, from road to mountain biking, touring to cyclo-cross, he only wishes he had time to ride them all. He's mildly competitive, though he'll never admit it, and is a frequent road racer but is too lazy to do really well. He currently resides in the Cotswolds, and you can now find him over on his own YouTube channel David Arthur - Just Ride Bikes.
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58 comments
It's got more style than you're average custom steel build.
Style is an unquantifiable term that you either associate with or think of as a waste of time and effort.
Do you care about looking different from the Red, Black and White cyclists around you.
Does it matter that there is no performance gain for an additional cost.
Wow. That escalated fast.
Here's a thing:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-EqZnY2VPio
Semantics, excellent!
I'm now wondering if Jacques Derrida would have liked this frame. In fact, I'm imagining Derrida on this hand-made-if-controversial machine going for a ride with Umberto Eco, who's riding a Taiwanese carbon model. Which of them would be happier, I wonder? And, crucially, what would 'happier' mean in this context?
Schrödinger's cat just disappeared up its own fundament.
Guys,
Can we use the word expensive, rather than overpriced on this forum,please. You're all intelligent people and saying something looks too expensive is less confrontational (less Troll-like using modern vernacular) and carries more weight given what we know at the moment.
Something is only overpriced if it doesn't sell (which in the case of the above bike, we don't know yet). If he has to discount it to sell it, then it was overpriced.
Good example would be a 1 bed flat in London being sold for 1/2 million squid. Sadly its not overpriced because there are lines of people buying at that price, yet to the vast majority of us it is too %@$#$ expensive
Amusing to see the lazy North / South divide and City Boy stereotypes, 'I know a bloke, who makes frames for no money...' AND 'I could buy ten carbon bikes for that' all in one thread.
How about celebrating choice and people supporting the bike industry in all its guises?
Crazy idea?
That would be too easy. As long as people think somethings overpriced then we'll always have people stating that.
No one "thinks" it is over priced.
It simply is overpriced.
Fools...money...etc etc.
If a single person is happy to buy it, it's not overpriced. It's just that you don't particularly agree with the price. Unfortunately, you don't get to set the price.
You clearly think it's overpriced though...
Show us your hand made underpants or GTFO.
The same people complaining about the price are the same people who wear clothes from Next / Primark.
Functional but characterless.
Hi Bobby Brains. I wouldn't say it's due to not affording it, and I wouldn't resort to personal insults, nor do I think it's on calling this a shitty forum.
This shitty forum has promoted your mates bike and you are taking the time to comment on it - ironic much?
Look, I think people consider it abit over priced compared to what is offered by others out there. It's the issue of relativity.
Personally not for me, due to the geometry for starters, but I like the paint. However I am genuinely interested in hearing how it rides!
As already said, I can't see the appeal in this bike (whether it was £500 or £5,000). It's just not going to get my money. But the wielding is actually very subtle and beautiful. I just think steel is a bit pointless given the weight penalty.
Haha, so much hate in this post.
It's much too late and I simply don't care enough.
However...
I know Tom, and I know that he is not in this business to make a ton of cash. I am sure that his pricing is sensible for his costs etc etc.
Also, he makes his own components for certain bikes (bars, forks, stems, guards, fenders etc).
I imagine most people on here are angry at the price simple because they can't afford it. "Ooooh, but but but, it's expensive, screw that guy, but but but...."
It's not marketed to you. It's marketed to people who don't piss and moan about crap on a shitty forum.
I think there are probably many on here that can afford it. If they are sheep then your latter comments might pass them by. If they are not then perhaps those comments might encourage them to look elsewhere.
I fail to see how you can determine that the poster is a city banker just because he can afford and sees the workmanship that's gone into this frame? I can afford it yet I'm not a banker. Great reasoning though, enjoy riding your £200 scaffolding tubed frame.
City banker is rhyming slang......And the scaffolding dig really is quite ironic as the steel used to form scaffolding has much more in common with the Donkey (sorry Donhou) frame than it does with my carbon or aluminium bikes.
Ah, the phrase you're looking for is "merchant banker". Get it right. Your knowledge on rhyming slang is about as great as your knowledge about steel. Carry on though.
Shame only three sizes offered! Struggling to see the appeal about this bike. I do like the paint job however.
Sorry mate, but trikes will never, ever be a thing of beauty! Regardless of who builds them and what's hung off them!
I couldn't put my finger on what the paint scheme reminded me of. Then it hit me... Global Hypercolor. That's the matching kit sorted.
This one is a thing of beauty though: http://www.donhoubicycles.com/chriss-xcr-road-bike/
Daylight robbery and very much the case of the emperors new clothes. I have Rourke and Longstaffs in spitting distance and they both offer the best bespoke frame building for less. The price just for the frame alone is laughable. I am sure it's well made but it's no nicer than some mass produced frames that came out of the Raleigh factory many moons ago made by skilled workers.
I have watched with interest how many working class skilled trades that used to be common place have been taken over by the middle class and the hipsters and the end product has had a massive price tag arbitrarily added to it.
I never thought class would effect the bike trade but it obviously has.
A comment so baseless I had to create an account for!
How you can compare your frames to a frame you have not yet seen is beyond me. You have not seen the quality of the work, nor have you ridden the frame/bike.
Again, saying the price of the frame is laughable is in itself laughable. Tom builds exceptional components (as many of his customers will swear to) and each one demands a high price. Some people are willing to pay more for a UK hand-made from from a man with a very dedicated design philosophy as well as exceptional customer care.
As for the idea that a mass produced Raleigh could compete in terms of build quality, well I'm guessing your glasses must be quite rose tinted.
"over by the middle class and the hipsters"
Trust me, Tom is neither of those (ok, well maybe a little bit of a hipster). Truth is quality products have always been expensive. And some people have always thrown their toys out of the pram about the price. 'people know the price of everything, but the value of nothing' or whatever the quote is.
As for the price being arbitrary, well, why don't you try adding up the price for having your own factory, the staff, the rent, the running costs, the marketing, the travel costs etc etc etc etc etc.
I think maybe there is some class related issues you need to sort out within yourself.
Can't afford it? Probably not intended as a customer anyway.
I assume you mean builds WITH?
Which then leads to the question of why it costs so much more than others?
http://www.robertscycles.com/robertspricelist13.html
I don't doubt the frames are nice, and they will sell, but I don't see what the magic something is that justifies the extra over a large number of other well established bespoke builders, bear in mind there are very few frame sizes and if your spending that sort of money I would hope you buy something that fits, not something that is "near enough"
To be fair to MKultra, Tom Donhue has TIG welded some off the shelf CrMo steel tubing. It's not like he has painted the Sistine Chapel.
I've a mate who used to weld pressure vessels for a living who could do at least as good a job.
It's not even like these are bespoke made, the article says they are only available in 3 sizes.
I preferred the Dom Mason frame from the other week, but someone like Chris Marshall could build something just as nice for half the price. And Chris's paint job would look nicer.
(Then again, Chris doesn't spend any of his customers' money on marketing, and works out of a lock up in Keighley, not a workshop in Hackney).
It's not as if Brian Rourke or Longstaffs down the road from me are operating a back street sweat shop with illegal migrants to undercut the competition.
People on here know what they are talking about so being an apologist for an over priced brand is not impressing any one, if people out there are stupid enough to pay twice the price simply because a frame has been been anointed by the hipster pope using an iced frapacino in a Rapha mug then more fool them.
A friend of mine has got a Longstaffs trike and it's a thing of beauty with far more engineering and hand finishing having gone to it.
It was still cheaper than your best mates "bespoke" 3 sizes fits no one approach that's twice the price it should be. Where on earth are they being fabricated? In a Swiss castle then air freighted on a private jet one at a time to the customers door?
As that's the only explanation I can see for these "costs" you are banging on about.
What an effete tit. The bike is not even made to measure (3 sizes!) and as contributors have commented it is not a work of art. I could , after a great deal of training, replicate this frame but could never reproduce Michael Angelo's David not matter how many years I tried. In the end it is simple engineering so pay £2000 more than it's worth if you like but you'll look like a complete shallow mug. But then again why would a city banker like you be bothered? Dick.
Comparing a frame like this to anything else is irrelevant, a company like Rose, Cinelli etc can charge way less as their frames are made in bulk. I could get a steel frame from Ribble for just under £400 but that's hardly the same.
These are made in limited numbers by hand and are intended to be exclusive. Plus they are built by a UK crafts person, this should be celebrated, not subject to cynical boohooing.
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