When it comes to exquisite engineering and attention to detail it’s hard to think of another company that even comes close to rivalling Nicolai.

It’s fair to say that their production techniques border on being anally retentive, but that’s part of what makes them so special. Another major consideration is that they’re the only company that we know of that’ll custom build a full suspension bike to your exact specifications, from colour right through to geometry and cable routing. To be honest though this Helius AM is so good as ‘standard’ that you’ll have to have pretty unique tastes if you want to change it.

Travel is adjustable between 135 and 170mm, but we reckon it’s best left on the higher settings where it excels through the rough stuff. The true 4–bar design is hard to beat in terms of performance, and it also works well with any decent shock, so just pick one from the next section and you’ll be laughing. A true all– mountain bike, and one that you’ll never want to part with.

Price: £1780.00 without shock
www.nicolai-uk.com
www.nicolai.net