 Marcus Farley wanted the perfect bike, so he had Nicolai build it, here’s his story
There are a number of boutique brands that I’ve wanted over the years, and I have been lucky enough to own both a Yeti and an Intense. Whilst fantastic bikes, I’ve always craved a custom fit full suspension bike. In part, for the sheer bling factor, but more importantly because I’m at that awkward 5 foot 11 inches height that puts me into the classic ‘in between size’ where medium can be too small but large too big. It’s made far worse by my short 30 inch inseam and long torso.
In Europe, there’s only one place to get this made in my opinion, and that’s at the engineering powerhouse of Nicolai. Worldwide, I know of only two others: Ventana and Eriksen. As Nicolai themselves say;
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‘if a standard tool doesn’t suit your body or your style of working the trail, a tailor made frame is the key. Usually this possibility is only reserved to pro riders and prototype testers. We offer this to everyone.’
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A custom frame demands a custom frame assembler and I hooked up with my local Yorkshire Nicolai dealers, Moonglu. Neil is a revered wheelbuilder and he crafted me some fantastic Stan’s ZTR Flow wheels with my preferred Hope Pro2 hubs that he assembled along with my wish list of Pike forks, Sram XX1 drivetrain, Shimano XT brakes, Renthal Fatbar Lites, Thomson 50mm stem, Ergon grips, Cromag seat collar, Rockshox Reverb dropper and Brooks Cambrium C17 saddle. With chunky Specialized Purgatory and Ground Control tyres, it’s not the lightest bike, but then I’m not exactly svelte anymore either, so it suits me and my riding down to a tee.
How does it ride? Like a dream! It’s perfect.
A big thank you to –
All at Nicolai – To Karlheinz Nicolai for his unwavering design and engineering philosophy and especially to Moritz and Marcel and their welding and  assembling team for making the process both effortless and exciting.
Neil and Mark at Moonglu for the fantastic build, attention to detail, patience and for wheel making at its absolute pinnacle.
I’ve lusted over a Nicalai for a long time. Wonderful bikes.
I’m not sure how important custom fit is. I assume these days with most frames having lots of standouts that you pick the TT length that suits & that’s pretty much it…
Regardless though, great ‘how it’s made’ article.
standover even…
Nicolais still make me go gooey all over.
Very jealous and a gorgeous bike.
Tut tut, using a lathe with no safety specs….
And if you want a Nicolai, the UK importer is now Head for the Hills in jolly old Dorking, Surrey. I got mine from them years ago, still going strong and an excellent bike!
PS I am not an employee, merely a happy customer of a really good LBC.
Looks absolutely amazing that, big fan of Nicolai. With those numbers though it does look like a German made banshee prime…
Kalle (the nickname of people called KarlHeinz in Germany) Nicolai just called me and asked me to post the following information :
Head for the Hills is great and one of the dealer network in the UK . But anyway Nicolai is now serving UK dealers and end consumers direct from germany, too .
There is no exclusive distributor in the UK anymore . New Dealers ar welcome to ring up Vincent directly in germany .
Also end consumers can purchase direct in germany , if they want and if they do not have a dealer close by. .
thanks
Kalle
p.s. Oblong is my Singletrack username.
Regards,
Marcus Farley
Yep, great looking bike, luverly articvcle, and I’m not (pathologically) that jealouse…
Yup, you can now order through your lbs, there is no uk distributor. I’m on my 7th Nicolai, I’ve sold 2, 1 was stolen and still have 4 of them. 4 were custom
Love the bikes, neutral, stiff and bombproof.
Mike, Katie and I (Momentum) were the Nicolai distributor until Nicolai moved to a direct distribution model. We’re still around as a retailer offering our 10 years of experience with the brand to help you get the perfect bike.