- News
- Reviews
- Bikes
- Accessories
- Accessories - misc
- Computer mounts
- Bags
- Bar ends
- Bike bags & cases
- Bottle cages
- Bottles
- Cameras
- Car racks
- Child seats
- Computers
- Glasses
- GPS units
- Helmets
- Lights - front
- Lights - rear
- Lights - sets
- Locks
- Mirrors
- Mudguards
- Racks
- Pumps & CO2 inflators
- Puncture kits
- Reflectives
- Smart watches
- Stands and racks
- Trailers
- Clothing
- Components
- Bar tape & grips
- Bottom brackets
- Brake & gear cables
- Brake & STI levers
- Brake pads & spares
- Brakes
- Cassettes & freewheels
- Chains
- Chainsets & chainrings
- Derailleurs - front
- Derailleurs - rear
- Forks
- Gear levers & shifters
- Groupsets
- Handlebars & extensions
- Headsets
- Hubs
- Inner tubes
- Pedals
- Quick releases & skewers
- Saddles
- Seatposts
- Stems
- Wheels
- Tyres
- Health, fitness and nutrition
- Tools and workshop
- Miscellaneous
- Tubeless valves
- Buyers Guides
- Features
- Forum
- Recommends
- Podcast
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.
Latest Comments
- ktache 4 hours 6 min ago
The people at Hexlox have asked me to tell others about their black Friday deals, but I don't quite know what the offer is yet. But saving anything...
- Freddy56 4 hours 16 min ago
Would love to know if anyone else thinks the army green winter jackets are actually better than black to hide the cyclist profile in low light?
- momove 4 hours 24 min ago
You two are going to have to help out the undereducated here!...
- VIPcyclist 4 hours 49 min ago
Whilst I was reading this I was thinking : sounds familiar, yep, that's right . Then I read the bit about being referred for a fitness to drive and...
- Dnnnnnn 5 hours 2 min ago
I'm unclear how simply considering the views of people who travel through an area is voting for rat-runs. No need to explain though.
- David9694 6 hours 1 min ago
When you don't know for sure what the whinge would be if this work was postponed to January, but you know there would be one:...
- biking59boomer 6 hours 42 min ago
Sadly the cyclist hate in this country seems to have worsened of late. Dangerous motoring combined with anti-cycling officialdom in some places is...
- Cyclo1964 9 hours 14 min ago
Brilliant 🤣
Add new comment
58 comments
A Cinelli XCR is made to special order and costs getting on for three grand.
But Bob Jackson appear to charge approx. £750 for their 853 road frame and forks. Steve Goff website says £600 for frame only, although I wonder if that price is a bit out of date.
If i had that sort of money to spend on a bike i'd get a cinelli xcr, cheaper and better looking imo. I do like the paint job though.
It's a beautiful bike and after a quick look at Donhou's website, it's one of many superb creations. Ok so we can all locate a manufacturer that has a cheaper offering however this is a fairly unique bike hand built in London and I love it!
The paint job looks ridiculous.
.
I don't like the style of paint job where the ends on the patterned area on the down tube are cleanly cut off. It looks like the sort of thing you'd do as a kid when you stuck stickers on your chopper
Why cant we have a nice flowing design or pattern that blends from the down tube into the head and seat.
Impossible to compare hand-made, limited numbers bike with a mass-produced carbon one. Fair comparisons would be Parlee and the like.
Ferrari F40 & a 1.1popular plus Ford Fiesta are both car built at around the same time. One had a place on a million bedroom walls, the other was a million peoples first car.
I am pretty seriously considering one of these. Tom will spec Shimano hydraulic brakes should one so require - doesn't cost much extra.
There are (of course) much "better" bikes, for less money. The Rose Xenon CDX 3100 looks alright. I can't say it floats my boat personally, I don't care for either the frame or the graphics. I like the look of both on the Donhou, and it's long-established as something I'd like: ever since that Rapha Continental bike at Bespoked.
For what it's worth, my mountain bike (a Chromag) is also a blisteringly expensive piece of handmade exotica without obvious performance advantages over something a quarter of the price.
Value for money is a fairly subjective thing. My approach tends to be to invest rather a lot in something that has been an object of desire on the same sorts of timescales that a tattoo design has to gestate for before it gets inked. It slows down the cycle of dissatisfaction, regret and upgrade-fever quite well, and I'm lucky enough to have the money to indulge myself.
This guy gets it.
I appreciate that models such as Canyon, Rose et al are cheaper but you'd never be able to have a chat with the person who made it or put it together for you. Plus, if you're in a bad accident then that's the frame pretty much dead and I'm lead to believe that carbon does in fact have a shelf life (don't hold me to that though!). With this, you'd no doubt be able to call up Tom and get him to replace tubes & effect repairs to paintwork etc following damage. That peace of mind is something I like and don't mind paying extra for. It's like the excellent repairs service with Rapha.
Please also appreciate that if people like Jackson etc are based up in the North then their overheads will be considerably lower than those of a frame builder based in London which will affect the end price at the end of the day.
What an incongruous boring colour scheme. No pannier mounts and the QR levers are on opposite sides = fail.
For a grand less you can get a gorgeous hand built Shand Stoater. The £1k you save you could give to SWMBO. Quids in.
I to think the paint work is drab, and foolishly hoped for an affordable Donhou, this is too high a price for what you get.
Looks like it will be some other company I go with, I like the Mason and Genesis are pushing the envelope with some of their bikes. It's great to see a brit company giving surly et al a run for their money.
I love the equilibrium which looks a complete steal compared to this and bear in mind the titanium version which is still way under that price.
Rose Xenon CDX 3100 - carbon frame and forks, full Ultegra Di2 (including pedals), Mavic Ksyrium Pro Disc 25 WTS and full Shimano hydraulic disc brakes - £2,738 - delivered!!
Nuff said
Completely missing the point, irrelevant comparison. IF your looking at this sort of bike that isn't a comparable item. If you had quoted a Condor stainless super accacio or a Genesis Volare, then you are in the right ball park. Mind you neither of them is cheap.
Then again this is an 853 not a 953 or Xcr frame, and 853 frames can be had ALOT cheaper, as i mentioned Brian Rourke, Mercian, Argos etc. All are considerably cheaper. This frame MIGHT have some magic element others miss, but i can't see it?
What utter nonsense. Look up the definition of relevance, it means connected with the matter in hand and as I made a comparison with a road bike that is disc equipped and much better specified than the snob bike reviewed, there clearly is relevance. And just for clarity on my point you are paying £2000 more for a heavier bike, lower grade groupset and wheels with a hideous paint job. Clearly relevant in any normal persons relevant estimation.
I think you are clearly missing the point. People that like this stuff aren't interested in carbon. I can't see the appeal myself - it's looks like the sort of thing a hipster would ride. But if you are looking for an expensive steel bike then this is probably all the eye candy you need.
I ordered one on the weekend, they are quoting 13 weeks atm the moment! Their customer support hasn't responded to any emails either so I'm going to have to ring up and have a moan.
Funny really as all the internet reviews have rose down as having great customer service.
Anyway, back to the topic at hand...
Battleship grey just doesn't look right... It's the kind of colour you have at the back of the shed, maybe they had a job lot left over!!!!
Personally I love the paint job!
I too would miss mudguard mounts, but otherwise this is just the sort of thing I would like to spend 4k on (in my little fantasy world where such things are feasible)
Re : price
I really don't know much about the cachet of the frame-builder involved but i'd agree that it does come across as a lot of cash for the spec.. however lower the ticket price by 300-400 quid by dropping the Chris King hubs and it starts to look a bit better.
List price for just the hub set is the best part of twice what a decent set of hand-builts using the same rims and decent spokes might set you back. Lovely hubs, but i'd probably choose to divert the money elsewhere if I had it.
Yikes, that's a lot of money for the spec!
I think it was a mistake not to include eyelets for full mudguards on a bike like this too.
Think you'd struggle somewhat to get the mudguards in. Looks like this one is running 25s front and rear and I doubt very much there is sufficient clearance. You'd also have to retrofit guard mounts on the enve fork. In fairness, Donhou is calling it a 'Performance' model, so in their minds, that probably negates the requirement for a fork.
Interesting when looking at the price of handmade steel bikes now though. Only the other week, a number of people were jumping up and down saying how expensive Dom Mason's new frames were. They now seem quite cheap (in relative terms), as well as being more versatile in that you can supposedly run them with 28c and guards front and rear.
Well, that's my 10 cents worth....
Agree on both points.
Ritchey Swiss Cross Disc Frame, Sram Force from Merlin, Hope hubs with Archetype. £2k. Bit of finishing kit needed.
Grey and neon is a bit "Miami Vice" for my liking, but I guess that's fashion for you.
and what is it with British framebuilders and appalling paintjobs!
That's lovely and it's great that the frame is made in the UK - but it is way too expensive for what it is as a full build.
A Lemond Washoe, which is pretty similar less the discs and comes in a lot more sizes, is $2350, and I thought that was steep. A Rouke in 953 is significantly cheaper, again no discs though.
It may be a nice bike but it is horrifically expensive for the privilege of disc fittings.
Not competitive in terms of price...
£4385 and they put BB7's on............
Stunning! Swoon...
Pages