Hannah is out at the Sea Otter Classic in California, USA. It’s a four day festival of racing and a huge expo area. There are races for every type of bike, but there’s a strong leaning towards mountain biking, and if you want to see new products, prototypes, and unique bikes, it’s the place to be. Head here for all our Sea Otter 2022 Coverage.
As you walk around there are loads of interesting bikes to see – makers bring their bikes in the hope of catching a few eyes, riders bring their best retro or quirky builds out as conversation starters, and brands have eye catching retro, pro and custom builds to draw you into their stands. Here’s a round up of some of our spots.
Btchin’ Bike
Here’s Ryan, he made this Btchn’ Bike. He’s been making custom frames for around 4 years, but this is planned to be his first stock model. It’s built up with 160/160mm travel, though it can also be built with 170mm rear and 170/180 fork.
It has an integrated bar and stem, single pivot suspension, mullet wheel, threaded BB and textured powder coat. He deliberately went for a longer travel bike, feeling that it’s a gap in the hand built market in the USA.
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- 64° Head angle
- 77.5° Seat tube angle
- 460 Reach
Marino – El Futuro
Kailash here picked the numbers to be forward looking – hence the name – then it turned out to be similar to the geometry to the Transition Spire.
- 63° Head angle
- 535 Reach
- 552-567mm chainstay
- BB 333
Contra Prototype #3
If this looks familiar, it’s because we featured prototype #1 a while back. Designed by Evan Turpen, welded by John Caletti, this was on display at the EXT booth. It’s made with 4130 Cromoly front and rear triangles, with 6061 T6 aluminium linkages, and a 7075 T6 24 tooth idler pulley.
- 63.5° head angle with a 170mm fork
- 78° effective seat tube angle
- 438mm chains stays in size large (they’re size specific)
- 480 reach
- This third prototype is a little less stiff than the first, but stronger and substantially lighter.
And here’s a bunch of pictures trying to capture the iridescent paint job.
Digit Datum
Here’s Tim Lane with his Digit Datum, a 140/160mm prototype that uses ‘Analog Suspension’ to give less flex, more reliability, lighter weight and more room for water bottles. You can read all about it here.
Hellion Aamen
Here’s Michael LaSalata with the Hellion Aamen that he made in Bentonville, Arkansas. He started out making dirt jump bikes in 2012, and has added this 130mm travel bike to the line up.
It uses Canfield’s CFI suspension system.
Michael made the CNC’d 7140 aluminium linkage himself.
The entire bike is built from parts made in the USA, and they’ve purchased a tubing factory in Florida so they can start making their own tubing too.
Koski Bros Bro Bomber
Derby founder Ray Scrubs was room mates with Eric Koski back in the day, hence this Koski Bros bike on the Derby Rims stand.
Frameworks 3rd Gen
This bike is the 3rd generation bike in Nico Mulally’s Frameworks project, where he’s experimenting with geometry and kinematics to refine a modern downhill bike.
It’s built by Frank The Welder – the guy who put Yeti on the map.
The rocker link was made by Cascade Components.
Some elements of the bike, plus the cranks you see here, were made by 5-Dev.
If you want to follow what Nico is up to, check out his YouTube channel.
Also on the 5-Dev stand was this custom Yeti, having a new chain fitted. No further info, just give your eyes some exercise.
Nukeproof
Hanging out at the Nukeproof stand was this mid-nineties Nukeproof.
For those not fussed about retrobikes with Scooby-Doo fonts, here’s Elliot Heap’s Reactor 275 that he was using to race dual slalom.
For dual slalom, he was riding a size small, rather than his usual medium.
The travel on the shock had been reduced by 10mm for the event.
And he was running a 7-speed downhill drivetrain.
These tyres aren’t actually protoypes any more – they’re out in the wild and public. But nice to see that even the pros use things until they wear out, instead of just swapping them.
Yeti Ultimate
Nick from The Pro’s Closet was riding around on this prime example of a vintage Yeti Ultimate.
Cook Bros Racing cranks, Tioga tension disc rear wheel, and gearing made for giant thighs. That’s a 48T large chainring. How fast can you pedal downhill?
All the external routing.
Shimano’s second indexed groupset. Pick a gear, any gear. You’ve got 21 to choose from.
Name that tyre.
That apostrophe might make the steering even more twitchy.
Ritchey
Yes yes, it’s a road bike, but it’s Ritchey’s 50th birthday this year and they’re making some special edition bikes to mark the occasion. This is a limited edition (150 of them, available in EU and USA only) Road Logic frame in ‘Skyline Blue’ 50th anniversary colours. Why do you care? There are three more anniversary bikes to come this year – what’s the bet that there’s a mountain bike among them? Start saving now!
Also on the stand was this bike, which Tom Ritchey made for his dad when Tom was 16.
Plus the original Ritchey P-21 and modern Ritchey Ultra in colour coordinated livery.
Sean Palmer’s FSR DH
Swinging the pendulum of weight and gnar back after that road bike, let’s correct the balance with this Sean Palmer Specialized FSR DH.
Somewhat surprisingly, the crank rub suggests this thing has actually been pedalled, rather than just pointed down a mountain.
Troy Lee, understated as ever.
Straight pull spokes, an early example.
You’d get bigger tyres on a gravel bike these days.
Grip shift, not just for kids.
Manitou Answer fork.
Hayes brakes.
Rare Manitou Racing Design stem.
Trike Ventures
‘Ooh, a trike’ we thought, ‘wonder what that’s for?’. On catching up with the designer and receiving the flyer about it, we realise the answer is possibly ‘guns’.
‘Global applications: military, law enforcement, elderly, handicapped, fire, search and rescue, agriculture, farming, hunting, sportsmen’ suggests the flyer. Hmm… let’s try not to think about a future in which we can be pursued over rough ground by police on trikes armed with machine guns… let’s look at the technology here instead.
The cassette is there because the wheel has come off another bike.
Brake mounts hewn from the hammer of Thor.
Double Hope Duos, hewn in the hills of Barnoldswick. The designer of this bike was very excited that Hope made these, enabling him to add brakes to all the wheels, and doubles to the front.
The whole trike is articulated so it can keep moving over rough ground.
It’ll do around 35 miles, and can go at 40mph.
Thoughts about unpleasant Mad Max-esque applications aside, it was very very well made – welded by a guy who welds for Space X, apparently.
Otso
Otso is the bike making arm of Wolf Tooth, both companies being the brainchild of three engineers who think – perhaps like all engineers – that they know what they want and can do it better. This Warakin gravel bike is available in stainless steel or titanium.
The dropouts use a Wolf Tooth Tuning Chip to change the chainstay length and bottom bracket height, making the bottom bracket lower as you lengthen the chainstay. Handy for increased stability if you’re loading it up for bikepacking.
The Otso bikes all have hidden messages under the top tube, so you’ve got something to read if you have to have a little lie down part way round your ride.
And that concludes our Spotted at Sea Otter bike collection. There were many more, but we didn’t manage to grab shots of them as they disappeared into the crowds. Whether you want to see tuned up race bikes, vintage collectibles, or just some outright curiosities, Sea Otter brings them all together and out into the daylight.
