News & Events

Monday 10th January 2022

Reynolds – Early 2022 Newsletter

As the old year has ended and 2022 has begun, we would like to wish you all a very Happy New Year! As we all know, it has been a challenging couple of years for the cycling industry, and we have met very few customers face to face. Of the conversations we have had with builders and customers, the same stories have been emerging regarding long lead times and the unprecedented demand throughout the industry. For Reynolds, these frustrations have been exactly the same.

That being said, 2021 has seen our largest turnover for over 12 years, which is exciting. We are extremely privileged to have had so many orders from both returning and new customers. For this, we are very grateful, even if it has left us scratching our heads trying to figure out how to squeeze it all into the production schedule!

Even with such an amazing turnover, sourcing raw materials for our customers has been a big challenge. This, combined with other issues, such as team members having to self-isolate, has pushed our lead times out, beyond what we are happy with. Even so, we wanted to say thank you for your incredible patience, advance notice on build plans and flexibility on delivery times, as this has really helped us to keep moving forward.

In recent weeks we have managed to clear the backlog on custom orders and the warehouse stock supplies for most parts are also improving. We feel this is now under control and although we are still waiting for more improvement regarding lead times, we feel that things are stabilising within the factory.

Stainless Steel

For 2022 we have not been able to get a guaranteed supply of raw material for 953. To that end, we have had to restrict manufacturing to existing customer orders for the coming year. Reynolds 921 will still be available, made to the relevant MOQ (minimum order quantity).

931 Relaunch

We are pleased to announce that we can supply 931 stainless in a revamped range of sizes and lengths. We have updated the price list with an excellent selection of our most popular profiles. This is also 100% compatible with our new in-house range of 3D printed dropouts.

3D Printing

We are also excited to share that we are launching a range of stainless 3D printed dropouts and our dropped chainstay/yoke for gravel bikes. In 2020 Reynolds invested in a Desktop Metals 3D printing system, and have since then been focusing on the designing, developing and testing processes.

You may be aware that we have had our 1st generation titanium dropouts on sale for a while now. Reynolds now have our second-generation titanium dropouts and new yoke available. The stainless dropouts have already been through full ISO testing and the Titanium versions are undergoing testing as we write this. We will have parts available to order and the prices updated in the 2022 price list.

Shows

We really enjoyed Bespoked at Harrogate last year. It was great to meet up with so many familiar faces, to share some of the new things Reynolds have been doing and also to see the fabulous bikes everyone has been making.

For 2022 we aren’t sure what we will be allowed to do yet as Omicron takes over the world. Fingers crossed we will get to some shows this year, but equally, we’ll not be surprised if we don’t. We’ve pencilled in Euro Bike and Bespoked 2022.

Reynolds Team Expansion

As we have had a very busy couple of years, our team has now expanded. Neil, Igor and Petru have joined the Reynolds family on the factory floor. This has enabled us to expand capacity and capability, particularly in tube shaping and manipulation. We have seen increased demand for shaped tubes and we have grown the team to reflect this. They are all enthusiastic members of the team and we are really happy to have them on board.

Keith has decided that he wants to spend more time actually riding his bike this year, although continuing as the Managing Director. He is claiming he’ll only be working 3 or 4 days per week. We’ll see if that’s really the case as the year goes on. To facilitate that Martin Shepherd has joined Reynolds as General Manager.

Martin brings to Reynolds many years of experience in design, engineering and manufacturing from Jaguar Land Rover as well as a passion for cycling. Last year saw him ride the King Alfred’s Way in Wiltshire on his MTB, as well as time trialing and pretty much anything in between. Martin has a background in 3D CAD and we are looking to grow Reynolds’ capability in this area.

Left to right: Reynolds team and helpers at the Harrogate UK Show 2021.

Keith, Tom, Martin, Dave, Emma, Andrea and Barbara.

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