About Us

The team consists of:

  • Mark Pollard, qualified wheelbuilder based in Ottery St Mary, Devon.
  • Ann Pollard, admin, despatch, Euro touring and the occasional sportive.
  • Martin Walbank, marketing, eMTBs, Gravel sportives and a specialist in coffee!
  • Julian Pollard. Our representative in the Midlands.

_wsb_256x411_Jurassic+Classic

This is Mark (me) on the 2012 Wiggle Jurassic Classic. Finished in first place – a result which at long last equalled my first place in the 2008 Dartmoor Classic sportive – using Spokesman Wheels of course! Since then there have been a number of road, MTB and gravel event successes, culminating in winning my category in the UK round of the International UCI Gran Fondo series in 2022.

My background in wheelbuilding started with building motorcycle wheels for Japanese and European models which I have restored over the decades. An example below for old time’s sake.

P1000309

Spokesman Wheels on a 1971 Yamaha R5

I started cycling again about 20 years ago with the purchase of hybrids for my wife and I to use for fitness and touring holidays. It was in middle of Brittany where we found out the poor quality of wheels on a £500 hybrid bike as my wife’s rear wheel collapsed on the road. Using my motorbike wheelbuilding methods we were back on our way in an hour or so, but was apparent that the pretty spoke arrangement which was so attractive in the brochure was rubbish for practical purposes.

Having built wheels for myself, friends and family, in 2012 I decided to take the City and Guilds Master Wheelbuilder course and achieved the required standard for the final assessment at the first attempt.

My cycling programme for the last few years has involved both Road and MTB Sportives, MTB XC racing, MTB Orienteering, foreign touring, the occasional cyclocross race and a few Audax events – all with reasonable success.

Others have used our wheels to become national champions in cyclocross, MTB enduro and XC in the UK and various other countries around the world. There has even been a couple of world champions along the way.

My workshop in Devon is a multipurpose space in which hubs, rims and spokes share space with my assorted bikes, trail bikes and Minari kit car.