If you hadn’t noticed from all the shiny bike pics on social media, the UCI Mountain Bike World Championships are going down now in Lenzerheide, Switzerland. Beside the obvious high stakes racing, Worlds custom bikes are this year’s trend. We dug through some industry contacts, then the Face-stagrams to bring you a look at the most unique DH bikes. Check out Part 1 now. Hint: It’s all in the details!
2018 UCI MTB World Championship – Custom DH Bikes!
We reached out to some pro photographers in our rolodex to see what spicy paint jobs were floating around the Swiss downhill course. Here are some highlights…
Specialized S-Works Demo 8 of Loïc Bruni
Current DH World Champ Loïc Bruni will be trying for a repeat on this shiny gold & rainbow glittery Specialized S-Works Demo 8. Super Bruni is hoping to add another star to the toptube after his 2015 & 2017 titles.
Intense M29 of Jack Moir & Dean Lucas
Kiwi ‘Shark Attack’ Jack Moir & Australian Dean ‘Donny’ Lucas of Intense Factory Racing get a more subdued look for their Intense M29 rides. Even then it’s the special little touches that bring it all together.
Saracen Myst of Danny Hart, Matt Walker & Alex Marin
The Madison Saracen team of last year’s World Champ Danny Hart are riding Mysts custom painted with national flag inspired colors & details, that had their masking pulled off before the paint had dried. Simple colors here, but no less attention to detail.
Devinci Wilson 29 of Dakotah Norton & Jure Žabjek
Dakotah’s frame is of course covered in red, white & blue with the stars representing the Home of the Brave. Jure’s bike will stand out a bit more as the frame is mainly white with red and blue accents – again national team colors.
Custom bikes aren’t everything…
We’ll close out Part 1 with a callback to Dean ‘Donny‘ Lucas. While his Aussie themed Intense could be called subtle, his TLD D3 helmet is anything but. Troy Lee Designs turned Dean’s crazy Day of the Dead ideas into eye popping color!
Follow along live at the DH World Champs over at the UCI or Redbull. Quallies are midday Friday, with finals all day Sunday. And we’ll put together another gallery with more bikes from Pivot, Scott, YT, and more!
Update: Check out our Part 2 roundup of cool custom DH bikes at Worlds here.