Cable rub is one of the great enemies of your frame – aluminium is actually a remarkably soft metal. Take a piece of hard plastic cable outer and coat it in abrasive UK mud and you’ve got something that’s not far off a metal file. It will quickly cut through anodising, take a bit longer to work its way through powdercoat, and then start to cut through your frame. As you can see from the photo this can get seriously expensive if not addressed. It makes sense to take a bit of time to protect your frame – it’s not difficult and maximises both the life of your bike and it’s resale value.
You can use anything (old inner tubes, gaffa tape, electrical tape) but it doesn’t cost much to do it properly with some form of clear ‘helicopter tape’. We’ve used both Bike Shield, which is stocked by most bike shops, and JRA’s Helicopter Tape but there are others that will work just as well.
The key areas to address are around the headtube and the top of the seattube where the rear brake hose and rear mech cable run (under the bottom bracket for Rohloff equipped bikes).
For the last few years we have fitted guides for continuous cables(1) to all but the XC race models. This means the cables are much more weatherproof but it does mean you need to make sure that your cables are not sliding in the guides as this will quickly wear them away. Most cables are not a problem but some narrower ones will move. This can usually be solved with a zip tie tightly around the cable on either side of one the guides or a bit of tape around the cable.
It’s also a good idea to protect the driveside chainstay from chainslap using inner tube, a neoprene cover, or more helicopter tape.
Finally, in what’s become a more detailed piece on this than I intended, you’re bound to miss somewhere so check again after the first couple of rides.
(1) if you do want to run cabling with ’stops’ you can buy inserts to allow this. The guides are slotted to allow for easy cable removal.
November 23rd, 2008
Categories: Technical . Author: Simon . Comments: No Comments
Our 2009 pricing is effective from today, 17 October 2008, and all new orders will be at the new prices.
October 16th, 2008
Categories: News . Author: Simon . Comments: No Comments
Due to the increased stress around the head tube area resulting from hardcore Downhill, Street and Dual riding, a headset with at least 22 mm deep cups is required for all frames except for Argon CC, Argon Road, Helius RC, Helius CC , Nonius and Saturn.Of course, any other headset is compatible with these frames as well, however, the warranty regarding ovalized head tubes will be void.
This MTBR Thread includes a table with a lot of the common, and less common, deep insertion headsets on the market.
October 7th, 2008
Categories: News, Technical . Author: Simon . Comments: No Comments
Issue 77 of Dirt has a article by Ed Haythornthwaite about his 5 day whistlestop tour of Germany with Elmar Keineke (long time manager of the Nicolai race team and now head of mountainbike PR for SRAM Europe).
As well as taking in some fine riding he gets a tour of the Nicolai factory with Karl. There are some great pictures and insights into the company.
August 11th, 2008
Categories: News . Author: Simon . Comments: No Comments
Its summer. You have owned your bike for a while in all likelihood. It saw use over winter. There is slight play in the bearings?
Please remember that our bearings and bushings are adjustable. Grub screw on one side, and a bolt on the other. By undoing the grub screw you can tighten the bushing in the frame and remove lateral play as the bushings wear. The grub screw should then be GENTLY tightened up again to lock off the bolt and stop it coming loose. Doing this on an occasional basis keeps everything free of play, makes your bike ride better, and prolongs the life of the bearings. A couple of times a year it’s worth completely removing the caps to check the condition of the bearings and ensure everything is still well greased.
Look after your bearings like this, and stay away from the evils of the jetwash, and you should get several years of out of a set of bearings and ensure the frame is not damaged. Run them loose and you risk damaging the mounts and will spend a lot more on servicing.
When after doing the above you still have some movement then you have a couple of options. We always recommend letting your dealer do the service work as they know Nicolai frames well and will be able to check the whole bike over (and why not bring them soem doughnuts whilst you are there – amazing how much quicker work gets done!). However, we can sell you the tools to do it yourself if you feel technically competent. Current price for tools (fitting/removal tool for bearings and another for the axles) and bearings, bushings and axles kits is on our pricing page. More details here. Exploded diagrams for all of the pivots are available from the main Nicolai site service area.
July 30th, 2008
Categories: Technical . Author: Simon . Comments: No Comments
For the Helius AM, Helius FR and Helius ST we are now offering a 12mm, Maxle Compatible, axle as a no-cost option. When ordering these 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.
July 17th, 2008
Categories: News . Author: Simon . Comments: No Comments
(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.
July 17th, 2008
Categories: News . Author: Simon . Comments: No Comments
We just love this photo, sent in by Octavio Passos in Portugal.
June 22nd, 2008
Categories: Ramblings . Author: Simon . Comments: No Comments
(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.
May 28th, 2008
Categories: News . Author: Simon . Comments: No Comments
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.
May 26th, 2008
Categories: News, Technical . Author: Simon . Comments: No Comments
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.
April 5th, 2008
Categories: News . Author: Simon . Comments: No Comments
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.
April 5th, 2008
Categories: News . Author: Simon . Comments: No Comments
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
April 5th, 2008
Categories: News . Author: Simon . Comments: No Comments
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.
April 5th, 2008
Categories: News . Author: Simon . Comments: No Comments
We’ve had a delivery of t-shirts so have stock again in all sizes in the most popular colours.
March 13th, 2008
Categories: News . Author: Simon . Comments: No Comments
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.
January 31st, 2008
Categories: News . Author: Simon . Comments: No Comments
