Nicolai Helius AC Pinion – Frozen Dagger

Reliability, simplicity and an even weight distribution. These were the three main points that we really wanted to put our focus to when it came to this build, Nicolai’s Helius AC Pinion.

The frame initially came in a raw finish, as one of the biggest problems any Nicolai owner encounters, would of course be to decide its colour. And we thought it would be a good time to give this bike a good makeover during its downtime.

We were really digging Nicolai’s Anodised Titanium finish but we all know that it’s not possible as the frame is not prepped from the factory to be anodised, and any aftermarket anodising would possibly void its warranty. Thankfully, we managed to find a matt ‘Frosted Oyster Grey’ paint job that would be a brilliant substitute for the Anodised Titanium.

Since we couldn’t anodise the frame, we decided to trick out the smaller components in anodised blue. These included the Pinion’s chain tensioner, crank bolts, rear derailed hanger, rear RockShox Maxle Axle, and some of the suspension fork dials.

With the owner’s other bike (a Nicolai Helius TB) as his light weight ride in his stable, we decided it was time to make this bike a bit more planted/stable with a new pair of Atomlab DHR SL rims, at 440g per piece and a 25mm inner width. This gave the long travel trail bike a wider contact patch for better tracking and grip in the trails.

We gotta admit we do get too constantly get caught up with our usual suspension tweaks/servicing and custom hand build wheels of a million color combinations. But builds like these never fail to remind us of the passion that we have for conceptualised builds, especially when they turn heads wherever they go. 😉