Spoon Customs debut £5k custom Scandium bike

Bike maker Spoon Customs has announced the launch of a fully custom, handmade, performance road bike with big-brand carbon wheels, wireless shifting, disc brakes and a quality carbon finishing kit, available in an unlimited number of custom colourways for under £5k (under €5k and $5k excluding duties and shipping).

The Sestriere Scandium, unveiled at the 2022 Bespoked Handmade Bike Show, is made by hand, by Spoon’s Italian builder, from triple-butted scandium tubing, which is both stiffer and lighter than aluminium and requires no heat treatment after welding, ensuring a stiff and responsive frame without the downsides or harsh ride quality often associated with cheaper alloys. The investment in the material and expert framebuilding saves on added process, allowing Spoon to build a custom frame that’s competitive with the price of an off-the-peg model.

Custom fit and geometry come as standard and are delivered from data collected in a three-hour fit process on-site at Spoon HQ, as is the case with all of the brand’s flagship bikes.

The geometric template of the Sestriere Scandium is straight from Spoon’s acclaimed Vars and brings that intuitive handling to a scandium chassis, opening the opportunity to own a fully custom bike to more customers.

The bike comes with wireless shifting and big-brand Carbon wheels from Zipp – and the ride quality of the Sestriere’s handmade, perfectly dialled-in frame is not compromised by a budget finishing kit, which instead features a carbon bar and seat pin, all for under 5 grand.

Final specification and parts are completely up to the rider, of course.

Speaking about the rationale behind the project, Andy Carr, Founders of Spoon Customs said: “Our customers know what they want from their bikes and equipment, but with the Sestriere Scandium project, we can bring our custom approach to more people and make it more accessible.”

“The big brands have convinced many people that making bikes designed for you just isn’t possible; it’s out of reach. This is surprising now that off-the-peg bikes cost just as much as custom work – it’s the big-brand business model that doesn’t deliver what customers need. We, however, are in the business of making better bikes but we also wanted to prove that it’s possible for custom bikes to also be affordable.”

Carr continues: “We wanted to take everything that feels good about our process and the character and ride-quality of our halo bikes, and bring that to more people. We wanted to do so in a completely custom bike, built with no limitations on equipment and following the same involved experience of buying, designing and owning a bike made just for you; but delivered with exceptional value.”

“There’s just a lot of work involved in delivering bikes one-at-a-time and until Sestriere Scandium this kind of performance and customisation just hasn’t been available or within reach for most people.”

“With Sestriere Scandium available as frame-only for just £1895, riders can get the benefits of our top-of-the-range bikes in terms of handling, fit, fabrication and finish, then build it up at home themselves or have us take care of all of it. However you choose to build your dream-spec Sestriere, you know that you’re getting a fully custom frame made for you and your riding to suit your exact needs. Made and finished to tolerances mass manufacturing can’t deliver.”