Shand's new Stooshie offers all the versatility of their Stoater gravel bike, but in a lighter and more speed-focused package. The bike is fabricated in Scotland from a mix of high-end steel tubing and this derailleur-only frameset forgoes the switchable dropouts of the regular bike for a more affordable price tag.

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While the regular Stooshie remains for those after the ability to run a belt-drive, singlespeed setup with their 'polydrop' setup, plus any other number of custom options (frame couplers so you can fold it up, anyone?) this new derailleur only model drops the asking price for the frame to £1,695, saving you £210 in the process.

Shand-Stooshie-first-look-review-106.jpg, by Jon Woodhouse

The tubing is still a selection from renowned Italian steel specialists Columbus and Dedacciai, which is then welded together in Shand's Scottish workshop, making this one of few truly British manufactured bike brands. 

It's all mod cons with the frame, with flat mount discs, rack and guard mounts aplenty and bolt-through 12mm dropouts. There's a TRP carbon fork up at the front with a tapered steerer that fits into the neat 44mm headtube and there's a pick of over 30 standard colours, plus metallic and custom finishes available for an upcharge.

The geometry sits nicely in the relaxed road/fast gravel region, meaning it should be equally happy taking on a sportive on dirt or tarmac while still ticking all the boxes for commuting, lightweight touring or whatever else you take a fancy to.

This test bike has come fitted out with Shimano's GRX RX600 mechanical gravel group, but complete bikes will get the flashier mechanical GRX RX800 group for £3,395. The British made theme continues with Hope's 20Five tubeless wheelset and there's decent tyre clearance for running fatter than the fitted 35mm Schwalbe G-One All-Round treads.

We'll be sending this bike to our resident gravel aficionado for a full test and review, so check back for that soon.

• www.shandcycles.com

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