For both the Helius FR and Helius AM we are now offering a 12mm, Maxle Compatible, axle as a no-cost option. When ordering either of these two frames you need to specify dropouts as one of:
- 12mm Truax
- Standard Shimano Quick Release
- Rohloff compatible
We have intermittent stock of rear Maxles available at extra cost.
(Updated)
Another addition to the Helius range. Riders had been demanding Rock Shox Totem compatibility for the Helius FR which we was previously only warranted for 170mm forks. This required beefing up the frame and a bit of weight gain (now ±4.4Kg with coil shock) and left us without a hardcore “All Mountain” frame. So welcome the Helius AM. Using lighter tubing and all new machined parts the weight is down to 3.5kg with air shock – the Rock Shox Monarch is our recommendation. All mountain forks such as the Rock Shox Lyric or Magura Wotan are ideal up front and it can be ordered with a Maxle compatible 12mm rear axle as a no-cost option.
Pictures of the first production frames are now up on the Nicolai MTBR forum.
The perfect partner for big rides. Available to order now and the same price as the Helius FR - £1600 wth RS Monarch.
Current bargains:
Helius FR 2007 - £1200
- medium - black ano with RS Pearl.
Argon FR 2007 - £700
Large - Rohloff and conventional cabling - you colour choice
Medium - Rohloff and conventional cabling - you colour choice
Medium - conventional cabling - black ano
We just love this photo, sent in by Octavio Passos in Portugal.
(Updated)
Whilst there have been belt drives for bicycles before the performance has always been poor with the feel at the pedal being rather like stepping on a soft mat. The Gates belts are different with an rock solid feel and three times the life of a conventional chain. They’re also clean and quiet – running without oil. We rode a prototype at Eurobike last year and it felt great – Singletrack featured a prototype Orange hardtail with the same system in a recent issue.
Universal Transmisions are the European distributor for Gates Carbon belt drives and we hope to be able to offer all Nicolai hardtails with Gates Carbon Drive as an option from 2009. We think you’ll be hearing a lot more about belt drive over the next few years.
There is now a Nicolai channel on YouTube with service videos. These are only up for the Nucleon at the moment but the plan is to expand them over time.
I spent Easter week riding in the Lake District with a Monarch 4.2 on my Helius CC. It’s an impressive piece of kit. Very nicely made with good solid adjusters and switchgear. The sag markings on the shaft (like the travel markings on Rock Shox forks) make getting the correct air pressure much less hit and miss than usual and the pivoting air valve means the valve is easy to get to when you need it and safely out of the way when you’re done.
Switchable ‘floodgate’ platform damping, with a big range of adjustment, is there if you like to have a more solid suspension when climbing or on the road. I much prefer the option of platform damping to a lock out - it’s far less of a problem if you set off downhill without disabling it. Performance was excellent - I didn’t notice a change from the Fox RP23 I’d been riding recently. Weight is exactly the same as the Fox (c275g with bushings) and Rock Shox say it’s fine to use for everything except downhill. The price is keen as well - we’re recommending this for both the Helius CC and AM now.
A hot new Nicolai frame joins the fleet (and the single pivot Saturn retires). Whilst the Helius CC is an allrounder suitable for everything from short blasts and races to all day epics (with travel adjustable from 85-130mm) the RC is a focused on a single purpose – racing.
Naturally, we didn’t just take a file to the CC and shave some metal from the tubes - each machined part was redesigned under strict dietary criteria. Then we added exclusive features like ceramic axles, titanium bolts and a DT Carbon shock (the lightest on the market) giving an all up frame weight of 2.44Kg (medium size, anodised, with shock).
Travel is 115mm or 95mm (adjusted by moving the bolt on the shock linkage) and it’s compatible with all current XC and race forks. Available to order now – price still TBC but we expect it to be around £1800.
We’ve popped the corks on the Champagne - it’s done! The factory have the hard work behind them and have started production of the new G-Boxx 2 transmission system. 95% of the parts are manufactured in house on Nicolai’s own machines. More info and pics on www.g-boxx.com.
The Nicolai team are now testing the system on the Ion G-Boxx 2 and we hope to be offering it to the public soon
A Rohloff equipped hardtail makes a great touring bike, whether off or on road. Previously we offered welded mounts as an option but these had to be specified at manufacturing. For 2008 Argons with pivoting dropouts we now have a retro-fittable adaptor to allow the use of racks.
We’ve had a delivery of t-shirts so have stock again in all sizes in the most popular colours.
A customer at Head for the Hills wanted a polished Helius FR so we shipped the bike built but unpainted and Dan then stripped it back down.
A lovely bit of Parquet floor Dan’s got.
Universal Transmissions revealed the insides of the new G-Boxx 2 on December 24th. We saw this ‘box at Eurobike and it rides great. This should be available on Nicolai bikes in the next few months and offers a considerable weight saving over previous gearboxes (though of course without the full range and spread of the Rohloff based boxes).
The rear shock linkage on the Helius FR has changed for 2008. Pre-08 there were 4 holes in the rear shock linkage for travel adjustment - the highest position was max travel, the lowest hole the lowest travel. Only a very small number of FR owners were using the adjustable travel and the frame is now optimized for full 167mm travel with either a coil or air shock.
The lower hole on the 2008 linkage is used for 57mm stroke shocks (generally coils at 200mm eye-to-eye.) whilst the upper mount is used for 50mm stroke shocks (generally air shocks at 200mm). Using a 57mm shock in the upper mount will give more than 167mm travel and result in the rear wheel colliding with the seat tube, using a 50mm stroke shock in the lower mount reduces the travel.
The adjustable front shock mount is NOT intended to be used to change geometry and you do so at your own risk. It is intended to allow the use of shocks of different eye-to-eye lengths. For example, the Rock Shox Pearl is available at 57mm stroke in a 222mm length. Of course you can’t run a shock with a much longer stroke (such as a Fox 222mm 75mm stroke) as you’ll increase the travel and your back wheel will hit the seat tube!
We’ve noticed there’s now a Nicolai forum on MTBR.com. A bit of a US focus but well worth a look.
We spent a week in mid-October in Dorf Tirol, Northern Italy, with Over the Edge on our first Nicolai owners week. Illness, injury and work led to a number of last minute drop outs but that just meant more time riding and less hanging around for the rest of us.
The weather was perfect - warm, dry autumn days and the wonderful colours that go with it (plus one day with snow and sub-zero temperatures but we’ll ignore that). Great guiding, great technical riding, masses of good food and lots of laughs.
The mad wood is one of the most fantastic bits of trail we’ve ever ridden. It’s not singletrack - that would be too easy - so there is no one way down which just means the 4 or 5km of rocky, rooty, madness was different every time we rode it . Dark, so very hard to get good pictures , but no prizes for guessing which of the pics on Flickr were taken there.
Andrea and Sylvia also made a video of the week that you can see on YouTube.
The 2008 model year is now upon us and as usual with Nicolai it’s a process of evolution rather than revolution. For 2008 there is “extra love” across the range in subtle ways, a substantial rework of the Helius FR, and a couple of new models – the Ion-ST downhill bike and the FMXTB for street and dirt-jump.
Full details and highlight photos in our newsletter.
There are some great new colours and the colour chart is now live.
Pricing has been revised (unfortunately we’ve had to put most prices up this year) but we’ve introduced a new, more transparent, pricing structure and some new shocks that actually give a lower entry point to each frame than before.
Finally, we’ve got a larger range of shocks than before, with great value from X-Fusion through to top end performance from Fox (and we’re now able to supply the DHX5 in 200mm length for the Helius FR)
Summer finally arrived, at least down south, last week. Riding on the North Downs yesterday there was rather bizarre. Dusty and bone dry in some places but water still pouring down the streams. It was damn hot as well.
If you’ve been thinking of a Nicolai we’ve got good stock levels at the moment so if you don’t want anything custom we can get you frames quickly in time to make the most of the Indian summer we’re all hoping for -
Helius CC’s (small medium and large)
Helius FR - small and medium
Some of these are painted and ready to go, some unfinished so you can still choose the colour at the expense of a few weeks wait.
Another review of the Argon FR, this time from Bikemagic.
“Poised, confident, versatile, lots of build options, industrial looks (if you like that kind of thing)”
Issue 64 of Dirt has a feature on the new 7 speed G-Boxx 2 gearbox that we should see offered on 2008 Nicolai frames.
There will be more info at Eurobike in September but this new ‘box should make entry to the world of gearbox bikes a lot more affordable
