Simon Whiten

Background

About Simon Whiten

Entrepreneurial bicycle manufacturing business owner. I spent over 25 years working in media in London, gaining commercial management experience in publishing inc consumer and B2B magazines, plus newspapers, TV, online, and events such as conferences, exhibitions and sporting events. For all that time I raced bikes - mainly road and track racing, with a bit of cyclocross and mtbing - winning a few races along the way. I started work in cycling media in about 2005 and have been part of the cycle industry ever since. I launched Handsling in 2010 as a media business but started producing bikes for the team I sponsored in 2015. That side of the business grew very quickly, and now under the umbrella of Handsling Ltd, is known as Handsling Bikes (see https://handslingbikes.com/). I design the frames, which are then protoyped, engineered and manufactured by our partner factory. We finish and custom paint the frames here in the UK at our Hampshire HQ and inhouse paintbooth. I am very lucky to work in close partnership with one of the best bike engineers in the business who now owns a leading carbon OEM factory. Together, we have now developed eight unique bike designs under the Handsling brand (and a few more which never made the cut, but went on to be sold by other brands). Handsling sponsors pro-teams, here in the UK, in Portugal, and in the USA, plus we support multiple national champions around the world, all of whom validate our products by testing them to destruction. Handsling frames have been ridden to national titles in the UK, USA, South Africa, Germany, Norway, Finland, Spain, and Israel by some very talented riders. We have also had our bikes claim national hour records, paralympic golds, and other accolades which make it all worthwhile. On top of that we operate a couple of cycling magazine websites - just to keep my hand in - and import ceramic bearings. Aside from work, my life is dominated by my 4 sons, and in particular the eldest, who is severely disabled. I don't get much sleep.