Thursday at the Cycle Show is the trade day, where we get to have a sneaky look round at all the bike bling before the show is opened to the public. After being teased for the last few weeks about a new bike from Shand Cycles, we headed straight over to the Shand stand to meet Tam for the first time. 

• Review - Marin Bobcat Trail 4, see what we made of the £575 29er
• Review - Mack Workshop bar bag
• Buyer's guide to adventure and gravel bikes

The Tam is a new adventure bike from the Scottish company Shand Cycles. We've recently taken a look at their off-road tourer, the Bahookie and were keen to see how the Tam sits in the Shand lineup. The Tam is an expedition bike based on a prototype that has been ridden and tested by Lee Craigie in Peru after her massive Tour Divide mission. As a side note if you haven't read her blog on the Tour Divide then you should - I've just been waylaid by it for the last 45 minutes and have been left astounded and in awe of this inspiring adventurer. 

Back to the bike though, Shand says that the Tam is based the design of their other adventure mountain bikes, with tweaks made through customer feedback. Shand bikes are all built to order, within this process the company saw an emerging trend, with customers commonly asking for the same small geometry tweaks to their standard bikes. The Tam takes these tweaks and is born as a full-on expedition bike, it's a bike that is destined for the toughest adventures, where the riders meet neverending gravel roads and need a bike that helps them conserve energy at every given moment. 

The steel framed Tam sports a taller head tube than the other adventure mountain bike's in the range, allowing riders to sit more upright over long days in the saddle. The guys at Shand said they realised riders wanted to be in a position where they just rested their hands on the bars to steer and use the controls there. It's a move designed to prevent back and shoulder aches from being stuck in one position for hours on end.

The Tam also has a lower standover than other bikes in the range. The effort in getting on and off a fully loaded bike made easier by simple alteration. Check out the difference between the new Tam and the Bahookie we rode recently.

The Tam also has longer chainstays to provide more stability and improve the climbing ability of the bike, one that is designed to move slowly and continuously up gravel roads to a mountain peak somewhere in the distance.  

In a further effort to aid stability, Shand has altered the offset on the fork to make the setup more stable when the front rack is fully (and heavily) loaded. The forks seen here aren't the ones that will be available on the finished Tam so we'll get back to you more information on that once the bike is released. 

The Tam sticks with the use of a Roholff Speed hub with grip shift and belt drive in the first instance but will also be offered with a conventional drivetrain setup should customers desire. There is more information on the Rohloff set up in our Bahookie article too....

Elsewhere on the bike, Shimano XT brakes are uses, 29er Hope wheels and Jones Loop H-Bar and racks front and rear. 

Check up on the Shand Website for more details - there's none there just yet but it's coming.....

Update

Since the CycleShow we have learnt that Trillion Cycles will be working with Shand Cycles, Seven from Shand told us:

"Shand and Trillion have agreed to collaborate in the design, manufacture and sale of bicycles. Strengthening the iconic, UK cycle industry, and harnessing the combined capabilities within each business this new collaboration is considered entirely mutually beneficial with Shand, recognised for their long standing heritage, expertise and quality while Trillion, part of Liberty Vehicle Technologies, provides a significant design and engineering technology expertise. Both brands shall continue independently, focusing on their own, individual, market sectors and operate from their respective operational headquarters in Leamington Spa and Livingston."

Check out the Prime, a raucous steel hardtail from Trillion Cycles here