News & Events

Monday 19th February 2024

Reynolds Newsletter – Winter ’24

125 Years of Innovation

Welcome to the Reynolds winter update!

Are you sat by the brazing torch trying to keep warm, or looking out of the window at cold wet roads wondering how Rule#9 you are feeling? Either way, here’s the Winter update from Reynolds to bring you the latest news from the heart of Birmingham.

2024 Pricelists

The new 2024 pricelists have now gone out by email. We have tried to keep price rises as low as possible, but we do need to stay ahead of the UKs minimum wage for our skilled team. We have taken the decision to charge shipping on all orders irrespective of order size. We have seen a significant increase in shipping costs which we can no longer absorb. We hope you understand.

Please contact our team if you need copies of our pricelists.

2023 Bike Shows

Made 2023 – August, Portland Oregon

The MADE show is a brand-new builders show. It drew in frame builders from Portland’s thriving hand-made community and further afield, particularly California and Colorado. Reynolds exhibited alongside our two US distributors, Torch and File and Ti Cycles, with help from legendary Iowa frame builder Jeff Bock. The show was in a former barge building shed, and was an atmospheric space for everyone to hang out in.

There was a broad range of builders from established names, like Moots, Merlin Cycles, Breadwinner, to new builders who were exhibiting for the first time. The Reynolds stand featured a show bike from Ti Cycles – a super lightweight Titanium gravel bike, with Brooks saddle & bar tape and Challenge hand-made gravel tyres.

The show was really energising, we met lots of new people and saw many of our long-standing American friends. The talent and diversity of the show was quite astonishing. The after-show parties were ace and the Chris King factory tour was so epic we thought we could have started work there the following day. And MADE is a definite for next year although we might skip the factory tour.

Bespoked 2023 – October, Dresden Germany

In October, Reynolds visited Bespoked, Dresden. This year, we chose to visit the show without exhibiting.

The new venue at Dresden airport was very different from previous years but still maintained the same quirky Bespoked feel. It was certainly unusual to watch planes taxiing whilst talking about bikes. With the show being around 1000km away, it was great to meet some of our customers from further afield who don’t usually get to the show, alongside catching up with a few familiar faces.

The show’s high attendance, along with the number of positive conversations we had across the weekend were certainly a source of optimism – we hope this translated to orders for all those who exhibited.

New Tubes

– BT147L

Working with Dave Levy at Ti Cycles we have developed a longer version of our BT147 44.1mm 0.9-0.75-0.9. The L version is a whopping 780mm in length and gives Ti MTB builders that extra length to kick out the wheelbase for those slack hardtails. We have them in production.

– 56mm CrMo

Cargo bikes? E-bikes? Chunky urban bikes? Need a big-diameter DT? Reynolds have the answer with two options of PG 56×1.0 tubing or a butted 56mm 0.9-0.7-0.9 at 750mm long. We should have stock available in the UK and Taiwan and they can be delivered via Portugal for EU customers and to USA/Canada by request.

– Plain Gauge Tubing

We have regular enquiries about plain gauge tubing. Whilst we don’t actively market plain gauge (we did invent Butted Tubing after all) we do have plain gauge as raw material and can make it either direct from raw material or by drawing it down and polishing. As with regular parts, we can get them heat-treated. So if you are looking for a PG tube, drop us a line and we will see what we can do for you, whether in 525/725, 631/853, 921, or Titanium.

Reynolds Technology EU

The warehouse in Portugal is proving to be popular with EU builders. Sales through Portugal are steadily increasing month by month. We are seeing both old and new customers receive their orders from Aveiro. It is also helping to support the custom builders in Portugal and Spain, who are finding having Reynolds tubing on the doorstep is a real boon.

Rey-Drive

Dropouts

We have finalised designs for the dropouts. There are the CNC flat plate versions, with inserts for standard or SRAM UDX hangers and can be configured for e-bikes or analogue bikes.

Parts in Stock:

– T47 BB shells – 68, 73.5 and 83.5mm widths

– 56mm Down Tubes in CrMo – both butted and PG

– Restrap battery bags

– Complete X20 systems in Portugal and UK. – Including Hubs, motors, cabling and controllers

– 3D printed top tube IWOC holder

– 3D printed charger cable cover

125th Anniversary

On 20th December we celebrated the 125th anniversary of the Patent Butted Tube Co. The whole team went over the road to our local restaurant to celebrate the 125th and Christmas in one go.

It’s fair to say there was quite a lot of reminiscing and some of the newer team members were given ‘insight’ into days past and characters that have long since left us.

On our website, we have published a series of articles on the History of Reynolds – from 531 to 3D printing and everything in between. Please take a look, it gives a lot of the history, showing how we got to the Reynolds you know and love today.

Retirements

At Reynolds, we have been blessed with a number of very long-serving employees. Two of them have retired in 2023.

Brian Turrall
Brian retired in August at the age of 80, He had retired from Reynolds twice before but kept coming back. He assures us that it is for good this time as his golf is suffering.

The truism that Reynolds is a family definitely applies to Brian. He is pictured with his daughter Emma – our customer services manager, and his granddaughters Naomi and Phoebe have both worked at Reynolds too.

Mohammed Amin

Always known as Amin, he has racked up 45 years of service and since the move from Hay Hall he has been the production supervisor. There is literally no job on the shop floor that Amin didn’t know inside out. You’d never see Amin panic, and he was always a steadying influence on the team, no matter what problem needed attention.

Amin was very adept at organising the work on the shop floor and he could seamlessly squeeze in a rush job to the flow around the factory without anyone noticing until it was in packing ready to go out.

The sight of him sitting at his desk with a pile of job cards is such a fixture of the factory we have proposed getting a cardboard cut out of Amin just to keep things familiar.

2024 Show Calendar

We are looking at having stands at 3 shows this year:

We have exciting plans for all the shows so add the dates to your diary and pop along to see what is new from Reynolds.

We also will be at Bespoked in some form – possibly with a roving ambassador, maybe something different.

Finally, we are also in training for the Rawlinson Bracket in February. It is an early season sportive in Warwickshire that has steep hills as its most consistent feature. It is particularly unpleasant as a result. So far Keith, Dave and Martin have signed up.

For more details, see their facebook page.

Contact names and email addresses:

Technical and sales support (UK-based staff)
Tom Cleverly: tc@rtl.cc
Martin Shepherd: ms@rtl.cc
Dave Merrifield: dm@rtl.cc
Keith Noronha: kn@rtl.cc

Customer service
Emma Malone: em@rtl.cc
Pedro Sant’Ana: ps@reynoldstechnology.eu

Reynolds Merch

Alongside our environmental statement released last year, we strive to minimise the impact on the environment, and the way we supply and send these new products showcases this. For all of our merch, we will be using recyclable paper and card packaging from sustainable sources for posting all products, and delivery to the local post office will be by foot or bike.

Our apparel is sourced from suppliers who have high standards for their workers, use certified organic cotton, and are Fair Wear foundation members. Wherever possible we source products made or finished in the UK. Any plastics or other packaging material from our suppliers are reused or recycled.

In the following months we will be releasing even more new products, so keep your eyes peeled. 

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