Words Will Strickson Photography Jason Pachos
Tom Donhou isn’t new to the game. He has been building frames under the Donhou name for more than 12 years now, and winning awards for his work for almost as long.
He has been the focus of various features in Cyclist over the years, from an Insider delving into his background as a fledgling builder (issue 6) to a land-speed attempt (issue 11) behind his own Ford Zephyr (he reached 129.4kmh turning a 104-tooth chainring).
Over time Donhou extended his custom steel operation with small-batch models, specifically ones that pushed the envelope beyond tarmac and into adventure-road, long before the mainstream industry had taken up project gravel.
Since he last featured in these pages, Donhou has moved large parts of his operation, and himself, to Greece to be closer to his partner’s family, and now he splits his time between Athens and London.
‘I was happy with a change of scenery,’ he says. ‘The riding here is great, you can do it all year, although it’s a struggle in the very hot summer months. Winter is perfect though, and Athens is surrounded by mountains with some amazing mountain biking and really good gravel riding right on your doorstep.
‘We’ve got customers here in Greece as well as in the UK, and our workshop is more of a concept space with a showroom that people can come into to see us making the bikes.
‘With travel back on the cards again, the hope is to connect with people locally as well as people travelling through, and connect them to our bikes.’
One such project in this spirit is this, Donhou’s recently launched Utility bike. A do-it-all machine that can be used equally for commuting, carrying heavy loads and exploring, the emphasis was on creating a versatile, accessibly priced bike that could last.
‘We wanted to make using a bike to get around on and carry stuff more aspirational than it is – to give someone an option without it being a full-on cargo bike. Instead, the Utility is more elegant and is still based on full-size wheels.
‘It feels like a bad time to use this comparison but there’s a kind of war effort. We’ve got to use our skills to try to encourage people to move away from cars. The Utility bike aims to replace car journeys where it can.’
Proving its metal
A sense of environmental responsibility isn’t new to Donhou – the company was founded on a duty to sustainability.
‘The job I had before this was at the start of when “being green” was being picked up by larger businesses, and I was witnessing a lot of greenwashing companies coming to us to do rebranding and such,’ he says.
‘Everything has been a reaction to that, it has always been a driver for us.’
Steel, he explains, is the best of the three main choices for its overall environmental impact. The tubes here are made from over 80% recycled material, and when selling complete bikes Donhou also assesses the footprint of the components.
‘It’s why Utility builds include Grepps reusable bar tape, Schwalbe Green Compound recycled and recyclable tyres, recycled plastic pedals and Brooks’ natural rubber saddles. The hope is that the bike lasts and can be ‘its owner’s only bike’.
The Utility frameset, including a Tig-welded steel front rack, costs £995, which is very reasonable for the small-batch world. Sizes are a simple and stock small, medium and large, and geometry is the ‘best balance’ for this kind of bike, with stability and handling under heavy loads a priority, albeit with Donhou stressing it has been built to be fun to ride without cargo.
As its name suggests, the Utility is eminently adaptable too, with horizontal rear dropouts allowing it to be geared or singlespeed; clearance for 650b or 700c wheels with either thru-axles or quick release; porteur handlebars or flat bars; plenty of mounts for cages, mudguards and more racks; and routing for a dropper post if desired.
Having slimmed down his operation and workforce a few years ago, the introduction of the Utility, which allows for larger batches and stock, means the company can begin to grow and upscale, and in turn get more people on bikes.
Donhou started his business having seen throwaway culture first-hand, once upon a time designing toys that wouldn’t last past the next Christmas. So, providing frames that could last a lifetime has always been the goal.
While he is spending a lot of his time in Athens, Donhou’s Utility is built for riding in British towns and cities too, or indeed any place where there is the pressing need for a capable bike to replace motor vehicles.
‘That lifestyle change is already well underway in the UK, but we can continue to grow on that,’ he says. ‘Athens is really behind in that sense compared to northern Europe, so it’s also nice to try to make a difference here.’