FINLAY WOODS

SPOKE sat down with Finlay Woods recently to find more about his latest project, Sherpa Cycles. A high pivot, gearbox trail bike with a carefully considered aesthetic.

What’s your background and how did you get into bikes?

I grew up just out of Wanaka and spent every second I could in the outdoors or in the shed. We were lucky enough to have a bit of land so my brother and I, plus all our mates, would spend our days building bike jumps. Dad would help us build ramps and seesaws. It started where we could only just jump over each other but got to the point where we’d hire a digger for a couple of days to push up some decent booters. Between this and watching every New World Disorder movie on repeat I got pretty into it.

What inspired you to build a bike of your own?

I studied industrial design in Wellington and for our final year project we could choose what we wanted to design. I had a few ideas but designing my own bike was always something I thought would be epic to do. On a bike trip