Beautiful bikes and trade shows have always gone hand in hand. What better way to attract people to your booth than hanging the latest part or gizmo on a custom painted bike that stands out from the crowd? There were many of these such builds this year at Sea Otter, and the following are just a few that caught our eye.
If you were able to ignore the shiny new headsets in the Wolf Tooth Components booth, their sister company Otso Cycles had this stunning Voytek fat bike as well. Painted up by Dustin Carlson of Tec-GNAR out of Price, UT, the frame had an impressive level of detail including some interesting paint wizardry with the finish of the red panels. What wasn’t shown on this build was Otso’s new two bikes – one wheelset concept. Instead of having a fat bike and a plus bike with one frame and two different wheel sets, they’re experimenting with one set of 27.5″ wheels with 50mm rims that work with both 2.8-3.0″ plus tires and 4.0″ fat bike tires. We’ll have the full details on this set up soon, but it’s definitely an interesting concept for those looking for a true four season bike without having to invest in multiple wheelsets.
Over at the TRP booth, another custom paint job adorned this 3T Exploro. The beautiful fade was the handiwork of John Tzinberg of Element 6 who also does carbon repair.
The build features their Hylex disc brakes with custom SRAM eTap Blip placement on the inside of the hoods.
Over at the Ibis tent, this olive and orange creation was made to celebrate their new custom painted Hakka MX program. Partnering up with Pro Bike Supply and Premier Bicycle Werks, custom paint jobs start at $499 in addition to the cost of the frame, the complete, or the custom built complete bike.
The bike on display had a $599 paint job with a complete price of $7999. Lead times for custom painted frames are said to be only 10-15 days which makes it a fairly quick and inexpensive way to get a one-off Hakka MX.
After announcing a collaboration between OPEN with their own Yeti-inspired turquoise frame, Yeti also announced the signing of Geoff Kabush as an ambassador. That means that for road and gravel use, Geoff can be seen riding this OPEN U.P. in Yeti team colors.
Geoff is also running the new single sided Stages power meter which comes in handy for bikes like the U.P. Since there isn’t enough clearance between the back of the crank arm and the chain stay to run the standard Stages Power Meter, the new single sided power meter works out perfectly. Sold as the right crank arm only, the unit is available for the latest Ultegra and Dura Ace cranks starting at $900.
The rest of the build featured the Stages Dash head unit, a Shimano Dura Ace Di2 drivetrain, Pro components, and Stan’s Avion wheels set up for the road with Maxxis tires.
