Bike Check: Andi’s Production Privée Shan G.T.

Andi is a self-confessed Production Privée fanboy, so when he dropped by the office with this latest bike we asked him to explain the attraction.

I used to read Dirt Magazine… and I remember reading a review of the Production Privée, the original one, and he [Steve Jones] was saying ‘this is the best downhill hardtail you can get’, and I was like, ‘that’s it!’. And it was painted… it was the Porsche Gulf coloured one, so I liked that.

Anyway, so, I read that, and it was about £600 for the frame. I was in China, I think, and I was like, ‘there’s no way I could ever afford that much for a frame’. And then I just kept following Production Privée for ages. Eventually, I moved back to Europe and I was going to buy a bike, and I could afford a Production Privée frame, but I didn’t know what size to get. So, I emailed them, and they emailed me back the following day. I said, I didn’t know if I needed a medium or a large, and they asked me, like, my style of riding, what I would be doing on it, and they I think they told me to get a medium with a longer stem. I was just blown away that this little bike company had spent the time emailing me back.

I instantly felt like part of the community. Any question I would ask, they would reply really quickly. So, I was like, ‘this is cool!’. I bought a blue and white Shan 26, which I’ve still got, and that’s the original one with the ‘PP’, the Production Privée on the head tube that’s cut out, and it has a mesh behind it, like an intake for the car.

It’s terrible idea, because water gets in and ruins your bearings, but it looks sick! But that’s the one Production Privée frame I kept. And then I thought, I’m going to get the 27.5 one, because that came out… And then, I started working here [Andi used to work at ST Towers], and I was like, ‘I’m going to test the Shan GT’. I loved that, and I ended up buying it, I didn’t send it back to them. I bought it, and kept it, and by this time, I’d already made, really good friends with Damian, the owner of Production Privée. And I was just a firm fanboy!

I think if you go back, and you Google Production Privée. on Singletrack, I think every single post is by me!

Then they kind of lost a little bit of their appeal, just because they were quieter, but they were still launching stuff and doing cool things. And then, earlier this year I was speaking to Damian because he was interested in putting Hunt wheels on their bikes, and we’re sponsoring one of his riders, Leo Noble. And I was, like, ‘oh, I’m going to go to ‘Ard Rock, and I want a cool bike to put our new XC wheels on’.

He was like ‘Well, do you want me to send you a Shan GT?’ I was, like, ‘Yeah, of course!’. It’s the new geometry, so it’s different to the one that I tested when I was here. So, that’s how I got this one.

It’s the medium-sized Shan GT frame, that’s 445mm reach – for my height that’s quite small. Back in the day, that was long! But I’ve done that because I wanted to be playful and to chuck it about a bit more.

I’ve put the latest Hunt XC Wide wheels on it, which is 28mm on the front and 26mm on the rear, and they’ve got front and rear specific wheels, 29 inch front and rear. They’re more of a downcountry wheel, to be honest, so it’s perfect for this bike. I’ve got a HXR EasyShift chainset on it, which means it’s got freehub in the chainset, and it means that you can stop pedalling, the chain will spin around the chainring, and you can keep changing gears, so that’s pretty cool.

But to get that to work, you have to MacGyver the freehub, so you’ve got to zip-tie your cassette to your spokes. So it’s not ideal, but it’s cool for shows, for showing people.

I’ve got a gold chain, because it’s got a black and gold paint job, like a JPS bike. The paint is Beluga Black, which is Bentley Beluga Black, and the gold is like the old JPS Formula One cars.

Then I got an Ohlins fork from the office, from an old Privateer 141, because we used to do the Ohlins edition. And I repainted that, so that’s rattle canned, I painted that. Rattle canned in black with Beluga Black paint, and I put gold decals on.

And then I’ve got Pirelli tyres front and rear, which Michael Braybrook helped me out with from Extra. I’ve got an HXR stem, Romain from HXR, he sent the cool chain set and the stem.

I’ve got a SRAM XO drivetrain on it, which came off my YT Izzo, which I bought when I was working here, which is one of my favourite bikes, and I’ve still got the bits for it.

I’ve got a Burgtec bar, a Burgtec saddle… I’ve got Crankbrothers pedals, which Hannah Wilson from Extra sent over, and I’ve got a Crankbrothers dropper post on it, and Hannah sent that too.

Oh, the bottom bracket was a pain. It’s a press fit bottom bracket, which people go like, ‘errrr’, but there’s nothing wrong with press fit bottom brackets. There used to be issues with the tolerance, but they’re fine now. But the HXR has a 30mm axle, and a press fit 30mm bottom bracket is really hard to find. So I ended up getting a Race Face one.

You’ve got the gold pins on those pedals, I noticed, to match the colour scheme.

Yes, it’s very cool. And I’ve also got a set of Peaty’s grips, which are super, super comfy.

And you’ve got some Hayes brakes on there, Dominion brakes, which I was looking at, and I was like, ‘should you have had gold levers on there?’

I don’t think they do them, the Dominion A4, in gold – they do them in purple though.

Oh, that would look wrong. That would be Silk Cut!

They did a racing car as well, didn’t they? This is JPS – oh my goodness, they’re all cigarette brands, aren’t they?!

Those Hayes Dominion A4s, they’re good. The Gen 2 Privateer Bikes have them as standard, and the E16 one has them, and they’re incredible. They’re a crazy brake. So I was like, ‘Well, I’m just going to put these on this too’. They’re probably too much brake for that bike – they’re really, really powerful.

You’ve even got a little gold cap on the end of your dropper post cable…I was looking for silver bits that you’d missed!

I built it to put on the stand so people would go, ‘whoa, what’s that?!’ And it worked, people came over and they were buzzing over it.

Have you ridden it?

No, because it’s the new design, and it was a really soft and quiet launch, like there wasn’t a big deal about it. So there’s very few of them in the world. At Ardrock, Ridewrap came over and took the bike from me and they scanned it to create the Ridewrap. So I think you can only get Ridewrap in medium size and it’s done off that frame. I was waiting for them to send me the Ridewrap and they actually sent it really quickly – I’ve just not got around to putting it on yet! I don’t want to ruin it because it looked really cool. I am excited to take it to Wharncliffe and just go down some steep stuff on it.

Definitely put the Ridewrap on before you do that, and then ride it so it’s not just a show pony!

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