From parts to bike, custom made Nicolai Helius CC
	For an overview of all waymarked routes in Belgium visit my other site: http://www.mtbroutes.be

Introduction

In octobre 2004 I decided it was time for a new bike. After of visiting several websites, buying magazine, reading topics on the internet and finally visiting the bikeshow in Utrecht. I came to the decision to buy a Nicolai Helius CC and build it up completely to my own specs. Now it's april 2005 and the first ride on my bike has been made.

Why did I choose Nicolai? Because it's completely handbuilt in Germany, no Asian affair. When you look at the frame you see the quality really is excellent, the frame was delivered like it should with the bracket and brake pads already prepared, the only thing Pat had to do were the bottle bosses... It also has a proven 4BL suspension with horstlink, you can choose any color. It's not light weight but not a heavy weight either.

On this website you can read the progress and other stuff about this bike.

The Complete bike

Click the picture for a larger image (any picture on this page gives a larger image by clicking it)

The color scheme for this bike is bronze anodized main frame and a black anodized rear triangle.

Part list

These parts I've ordered by several different online shops and by ABC Fiets in Wilrijk. Pat and Christel from this bike shop were really helpfull in all my special requests, I really recommend them !

What I immediatly noticed were the weights, all the parts always weighted more than listed... No big differences except on these parts: Hope disc brakes (almost 10%), frame (200gr), headset (20%). The wheels on the other hand were lighter then expected, not much but everything counts :-) Some weight were some rough guesses, so they don't count. My goal was a bike under 12kg, at this point it still could work out that way.

I weighted the bike with a bathroom scale and it said 11kg600, I don't believe does scales! So I need to weight it correctly sometime yet

News

10 March 2005, Finally getting the pieces together, it already looks like a bike. Still a lot of work to do... Today I decided to replace the original XT front derailleur with a SRAM XGEN type, the XT was of the topswing type and it didn't really fit the frame. The assembly of the pivot on the frame doesn't allow it, so I went for the SRAM. Temporarily bought a stem from BBB to get a feeling, maybe the angle and stem length needs to be changed later, but for the moment I can continue with the built-up.

13 March 2005, Did some work on the bike, almost finished now, two things remain, bleeding of the front brake and routing of the rear derailleur cable. The only trouble I got when mounting the bike was with the outer derailleur cables, first I stupidly cut the outer cable with the inner cable in it. Then after installing everything I noticed the frame isn't made for pieces of outer cable, but is made for whole stretches of outer cable, so 1 avid set for the bin. After studying the pictures I notice the cables for the brakes are a little too long, it's not a nice sight, but I'm a little afraid to cut those cables...

6 April 2005, the last parts were mounted checked everything and adjusted all the adjusting stuff, ready for it's maiden ride

7 April 2005, took it for it's maiden ride on my training circuit, read the ride impression, took some pictures too

1 May 2005, Did the first long test-ride with it (5 hours). I'm really impressed with it. Read the mud impression. Also shortened the rear brake cable, it looks much better now (still have to take a new picture...)

27 october 2005, long term riding impression added

11 november 2005, finally my new wheel arrived after been broken during my transalp. Mounted it, adjusted disc brakes for the new wheel, cleaned the bike a bit. During cleaning I noticed the only damage on my bike for, see picture. In the picture the bike is upside down, and this is the drive side seat stay, so it' obvious that is caused by chainslap.

Also put a new picture online of complete bike

Ride impressions

In general I'm very pleased with the bike. It rides really nice, smooth and quiet. And quiet it is, such a quiet bike I haven't ridden before.

The suspension really works very well, especially the front fork. It's the first telescopic fork I've really ridden (after headshock and Girvin's), so I was a little sceptic about this, but no need. You can really steer the bike where you want and it goes there. The suspension is also butter smooth, only braking activates the front suspension a lot, this is a new experience for me, don't know a direct solution for it.

The brakes, after been used of the braking power of my Coda Disc Brakes. I thought they were nice, uuuum back to reality! These brakes rule, power when you want it, modulation when you need it, night and day difference with the old ones. Only two concerns: when mounting them I heard them dragging sometimes, didn't noticed this on my ride. The levers are a little loose, this is typical for Hope I heard, and gets worser after a while, but it shouldn't effect brake power.

Rearshock and frame suspension. The frame has 129mm of suspension and I already used it all on this ride. Strange, upped the air pressure two times, still uses all the travel, so this needs to be investigated more. The shock has a lockout and I tried it, bwaa nothing for me, give me my suspension back!

Drivetrain: in one word superb, nothing beats this: quick, silent and smooth shifting.

So as you can read I'm very positive about this bike, maybe because it's new and shiny, maybe not. But the fact remains it rides much better as my previous bike (Cannondale Raven), the weight is comparable in 'feeling'.

The bike responds quickly to everything, turning, accelerating, braking. You can really race with a bike which has 130mm front and rear suspension. And it's climable too, on my training circuit I have a steep climb which is doable steep and not too long, I could climb it with the usual weight shifting, no extra effort needed.

So this was offcourse a little test of 29km around Antwerp with small technical obstacles, the real test will folow in the upcoming marathons and other rides. In 6 months time I will update the ride impression with some more comments.

For the time being you can take a look at the picture and maybe we see each other on the trail sometime.

Mud (1may2005): Mud you love it or hate it, I hate it. Sometimes you don't expect it, and you have to continue... The La Sauvenièroise marathon was such one. The bike tracks well in mud, it's very stable and direct. Only a little trouble with leaves and tick mud behind the bottom bracket, but this is common problem with lots of bikes. The suspension, brakes and drive train worked flawless (it's all new off-course, it should).
Cleaning, difficult :-( The anodized frame it not easy to clean, especially the black rear-end. After cleaning it (only with water, next time I'll try some soap) the frame still has some light brownish glance to it. This is because very small amount of mud stay put in the very small dimples of the anodized finished. So maybe a complete black anodized bike is not such a good idea, I'm glad I went for the bronze mainframe...

Long term riding impression

I've been using my Nicolai since April. I did 1500 kilometers on it, including a 6-day Transalp, not as much I had hoped for... And I'm still impressed with it. Only 1 little piece of anodisation lost, and that was my own fault, because I hit my shoe against the top tube. (And this also shows one of the disadvantage of the bike, it's high). During the Tranaslp we rode a lot of rough descents and stones flied everywhere also hitting the bike, but no damage to the frame. The cranks offcourse received a lot of war scars from the stones.

In september I also ordered my definitive stem and some other gold stuff from Hope, to finish the look, new pictue coming soon.

No components broke of fatigue or other stresses, only 1 wheel, 1 derailleur and 1 derailleur hanger have been broken. This happened during the Transalp when a branch decided to take up a fight with my bike. The mentioned parts lost :-( I rode 2 months with a bent hanger, because the replacement didn't arrive. Fault of the distributor not Nicolai, because if I had known than I had ordered it directly through Nicolai. So 1 advice, when biking a bike, any bike order 2 hangers directly for it... Changing the hanger is 5 minutes work, 6 bolts scewing and unwscrewing. The hanger is also easy bendable to shape it back (pictures follow)

The lever of the DT swiss shock doesn't work anymore, it normally has two positions, now I can turn it around... Strange, I'm going to service it in the coming months and going to look into it. It still works as normal, and I didn't use the lever anyway so no harm done.

Also in the coming months I will service my bearings and other stuff on the bike, I don't ride my mountainbike much in winter so it's a good time to do it. I will update this site with my progress of it.

Brakes, no problems with it; always works the same way.Brake pads are half worn. One time I lost a bolt of my front caliper, so it was only fixed with one bolt instead of two, only noticed it when disassembling the bike to put in the car. I was probably lucky then. Since that moment I always carry different kind of bolts with me. I even could help Roel with one of those bolts when he lost a bolt of his v-brake during the longest descent on the Transalp.

Front fork, very nice fork. But I kept on dropping the pressure in it, now it's 65 psi I think, and I started with 90. Otherwise it works period.

Saddle, replaced. Not comfortable enough, replaced it with the one that was mounted on my Raven, but I think I going to look for something different again. Specialized or Fizik.

Grips, that's one of the parts that is already worn... But they are good grips, so I just ordered new ones.

Photo's of individual parts

Click on the photo for a larger view...

Frame details

Work in progress

Finished work