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About the Wheels...

Alistair Gow has been a stalwart of the West of Scotland cycling community for more years than he cares to remember (or admit!).

He’s the archetypal ‘clubman’; a tireless worker for his club Glasgow Nightingale CC and a font of knowledge on all things cycling.

Over the years, he’s helped literally hundreds of Scottish cyclists find their feet when they first enter the sport; just read the chapter of Graeme Obree’s autobiography on his formative years in the bike game to find out the part "Big Al" played in Graeme’s transition from 'gringo’' to world beater.

As if that wasn’t enough, he’s also a first-rate wheelbuilder and mechanic.

With his encyclopaedic knowledge of hubs, rim types and spoke lengths, he’s the man Scottish bikies go to when they need ‘real’ wheels. The West of Scotland is hard on riders and hard on equipment. In this age of boutique, factory-built hoops with exotic lacing patterns, he’s as busy now as he ever was. Gram-shaving ‘for racing only’ stuff doesn’t really cut it around here.

Alistair’s talent for building wheels means his small but well-stocked shop, Wheelcraft, in the picture-postcard village of Clachan of Campsie, is a magnet for local riders. Pick up your wheels from Alistair, and he’ll tell you to drop them back for a quick check-over after a few hundred miles. Chances are they’ll need no adjustment, thanks to Alistair’s ability to get it right first time and his good judgement in applying just the right number of turns on the nipples.

For this set of wheels, only one requirement was made – silver rims. Alistair settled on the Ambrosio Evolution for their consistent quality, their resilience, and importantly, the cost of replacement if a rim gets pretzelled. Like I said, the roads round here are hard on equipment and no rim is invulnerable to Scottish pot holes.

If you’re ever close by, pop in and say hello. You’re sure of a warm welcome, a hot coffee or a cold beer. Oh, and a disapproving glance at your boutique wheels.....

Alistair after all, knows best!

Collectibles don't come more collectibile than this!

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