Spotted over on the MTB-News.de forums is a dream build you’re just going to have to jump past the break to see in it’s full glory. We’ve ridden our share of dream bikes and brought you some pretty ridiculous readers rides and pro bike checks, but these two builds take it to a whole new level with their incredible attention to detail.
The Nicolai Ion 16 bikes that Kephren23 chose to bling out are handbuilt in Germany. The 160 mm travel frame is claimed to weigh just a touch north of 7 lbs without shock, but the beefy construction and slack 65/66 degree headtube angle bike is meant to reward riders on the descents.
While these are the nicest looking pair of fraternal twins you’re guaranteed to see today, we’ll start off with the shiny bike first:
The pictures pretty much speak for themselves. How can you replicate the build? Here’s how it was done:
The fork lowers, crowns, and brake mount were all polished to a gleaming finish. All the twidly bits ( compression, rebound, etc) where anodized gold.
For us lazy mortals, Renthal handlebars are only available in ano gold. So Kephren23 took his favorite UK made bar and buffed it to a mirror finish.
The Shimano shifters also received the polished and bling treatment.
The green gremlin saw the XTR shifter body powder-coated white and paired with anodized green.
Leaving no piece untouched, the shock was also color coordinated.
Heck, even the derailleur saw some love.
This is the total sum of random bits that were anodized in order to crank the bling factor to 11.
Having built up my fare share of bikes from the ground up, I can’t begin to imagine how long something as detailed as these two projects would have taken Kephren23 to assemble, but the effect is stunning.
