Amazing Nicolai Freeride monster bike

I think this Nicolai frame was called the Nucleon. It is interesting because it was designed around an internally geared hub (A Rohloff Speedhub in this case) that is mounted inside the frame, by running chains from the frame mounted hub, in theory, pedal actions should not affect suspension movement (or something like that). Also notice the Marzocchi Super Monsters and Maxxis Hookworm tires. I guess this bike easily weights 45-50 pounds (or more).

AMP B3 full suspension frameset

The AMP frames got rave reviews some popular MTB magazines back in the day claiming it was the best bike on the planet. It was light, had active suspension and was designed by a suspension guru from the motorcycle world who you had to look up to if you where a MTB magazine editor back in 1993, Horst 'the horse' Leitner.

The rear link was even called the "Horst link" since it was on the AMP bike it was first used and AMP had the patent which was later on sold to Specialized. Last year the patent went out so now everyone can build their own Horst link bike. You would think it was Horst who invented the Horst link since his name graces it but apparently it was the founder of Nicolai frames who invented the Horst link when he worked at AMP. And he had to pay royalties to AMP to use his own invention.

When the freeriding fad came at the end of the 90'ies AMP bikes went out of style since nobody wanted lightweight XC bikes anymore, preferring 5 inch freeriding monsters. AMP bailed out, licensed the bikes to Mercedes, left the bicycle industry and invented some weird accessories for flat bed trucks and made millions.

Nicolai Lambda

This is a Nicolai Lambda frameset. It is built like a tank.

Cool mini velos from Asia

I learned a new phrase today, it is “Mini-velo”, that is any full size bike with 20 inch tires.
I also learned that in Asia people are running 20” wheels on full size, full suspension hi-end frames such as the Nicolais in the pic above. Why get a Moulton when you can just as well run 20 x 1.95” hookworms on your Yeti 303 lol?

Moulton also makes cool small wheeled full suspension bicycles. If you are interested in a Moulton SST bicycle build check out this Moulton SST build blog.