The Woods Cyclery is a world-famous destination for off-road cyclists, located in the New Forest in southern England. At its heart it is a bike shop and a cafe. The management cultivates a strong community of cyclists for shop events, but it’s also a popular stop for bike-people visiting from around the UK and even further afield.

What it isn’t is a bespoke frame builder, making it a less conventional presence at Bespoked than some of the companies with a stand in Peckham last month. It is not that the Woods doesn’t belong – quite the opposite in fact – but rather, that the company brought something fresh and different.

As friends of Ronny Romance, Woods arrived in southeast London with two bikes – one of their own devising, and the other a Rons Bikes Alumax 2 built up in the Woods’ style. This latter is the one you see in the pictures, and was displayed on the Brooks England stand all weekend.

Brooks spoke with the Woods’ owner, Tom Farrell, about his first steps into bike design.

What was the Bespoked vibe like this time round?

If I was to sum it up, I’d say ‘bike party.’ It was like a wedding, where you know or recognise a huge number of people there, and have a LOT of catching up to do! The Apocalypse race was chaos, but polite and good natured chaos, people were looking out for each other and attempting to ‘catch ‘ anyone who fell off the seesaw.

What brought you to bikes, and how did that turn into this new step into designing bikes?

I’m not a frame builder, but I’ve designed a bike that has been made by Sam at Stayer Cycles, which we had on display on the Stayer stand. It’s called the Dead Forest Cicada. I’ve been riding it over the last few weeks and I’m really really happy with how it turned out. It does exactly the things I designed it to do: it swoops, it zings, it doesn’t noodle. I’m very happy!

I’ve spent most of my life thinking about bike design, talking to some of the other brands we work with about their designs, and finally I felt it was time to make something that is mine, a melting pot of design ideas from all the bikes I’ve ridden and loved over the years.

And this wasn’t the only bike you brought, was it?

The other bike I brought to Bespoked was a Rons Alumax 2 that was displayed on the Brooks stand. Owen (one of the mechanics at The Woods) put this one together. Ron shipped it to us in 24 hours just a week before the show!

We wanted it to be a bit different from one of Ron’s own builds, while still pleasing Ron’s impeccable eye for taste. We went with a 1x setup, wide drop bars, Crust Towel racks (designed by Ron) and a mullet tyre setup, Ultradynamico MARS 29×2.3 front and the new Brut 700x53mm rear.

When you designed these bikes, how did you think about them? Artist, engineer? Any moments when you felt like giving up?

I’m thinking about it as a rider. The feelings I get from a particular bike inform my design decisions. I’m fortunate that I’ve ridden a LOT of bikes, and one of the things I enjoy most is FEELING the geometry numbers, the tubing and the setup that I’ve reviewed on paper beforehand.

It all came together literally days before the show, so there were moments when I doubted if it was worth the stress!

What qualities make a good frame builder?

Sam at Stayer is so nice to work with, he is extremely knowledgeable and experienced. He let me create exactly what I wanted with just enough support in the areas where he had advice to give, he made it feel like anything is possible!

His fillets are beautiful. I chose for them to be un-filed, to show off the skill and hand-made nature of the frame.

thewoodscyclery.co.uk
ronsbikes.com

• Brooks extends a special thanks to John Watson of the Radavist for the images used in this article.