I had to retire my 2005 Enduro on the grounds of ill health. Having had several frame cranks, the last one appearing in the main triangle was terminal. However, Spesh very kindly warrantied to whole frame and since I'd had a Spesh for almost five years I thought a change was due. Something a little more esoteric, that had the option of being customised to exactly what i want. Nicolai was the only way.

So this Helius AM is actually a large size but with a customised seat tube being that from a medium to give better standover and allow the saddle to be dropped right out of the way. It's also a custom diameter to accomodate an existing Joplin post. I had custom cable guides added for the Joplin; these run on the under side of the top tube.
I will run it in 150mm mode, which many of you will think is too much travel, but I've never found that to inhibit my descending speed. Besides, I am big guy and needed something burly enough.
Weight in this guise is around 32lbs, but that includes coils front and rear. Sub 30lb would be easy with air damping.

looks nice but saddle seems a long way forward on the rails?

You might need to look at the grouting in some areas. Just to be on the safe side. Is it an external or internal wall? If internal- no worries.

I've not had a chance to ride it yet so I haven't been able to set the cockpit up perfectly, but the saddle feels right in the garage. It's a relatively long top tube and I like to be over the BB when seated anyway. As I'm never really sat down for descending it works for me.

The wall is internal but the garage is a little ropey in general. The bill for rebuilding will be almost as much as the bike cost!

I like it. One of those bikes that you really want a go on.

Make sure you don't lose it in the snow though, looks a bit pricey.

Feel free to tell us how much it set you back btw.

Your photo seems to be the wrong way round.

Here – I've fixed it for you.

Nice bike btw.

Any semblance of credibility lost by the use of the words "steed & cockpit" 😉

Nice bike tho

WOW! That is a nice bit of kit,looking into replacing my Yeti ASX this year and have been looking at the Helius,how much extra was it on top of the frame price for all the custom bits? What rear shock did you go for?

why have you done that onion?

Are they white XT cranks?

Nah you see you've now got the transmission on the wrong way round. It should be like this:

The price of the frames is no secret; £1700 stock, add £175 for the paint, £90 for ISCG tabs and £90 for the custom seat tube.

Chapaking you'd be more than welcome to throw a leg over; if you're around the surrey hills any time and weigh roughly the same as me (105kg) let me know.

The cranks aren't white, they're regular but the Gamut bash ring is white so that may be having an affect.

The rear damper is a Cane Creek, which is where the price really did get silly.

If you plan on riding up any hills at all then you saddle looks like it wants bringing forward a fair bit, though I assume its set up for DH only at the moment

How (and why) is the seattube custom?

Basically the length of the seat tube is that of a size medium bike, but the frame is actually a size large; a stock medium frame was too short for me, i.e. in length, as I am long in torso relative to my overall height and prefer a long(er) top tube. However, I didn't want a 19" seat tube as it wouldn't allow me to get enough drop on the seat for when I'm riding pure DH (the Joplin gives enough for trai work but I wanted the option of more).
In addition, since I was already paying a bit extra for the length, I asked if the internal diameter could be 30.9mm as that's the size of the Joplin. The standard ID for seat tubes up to and including large is 31.6mm, but on the XL, Nicolai beef it up to 30.9mm, so they took an existing XL seat tube and cut it down to size.
Does that make sense?
I know seems like a lot of work for a small adjustment but it was important to me.
Saddle position will set right when I get to ride it.

They beef it UP to a smaller size? Que?

how far down you can drop the seat depends on the travel of the rear wheel .
a lot of bikes with 6" or more need the saddle raised just for travel clearance

Smaller ID means there is more metal in the tube compared to a large ID, for a given fixed external diameter.

Oh so they're using the same size tube. Fair enough then.

Nice machine, looks like a russian rocket launcher…cool

Chapaking you'd be more than welcome to throw a leg over; if you're around the surrey hills any time and weigh roughly the same as me (105kg) let me know.

Very kind of you, but bike probably a bit big and me definitely a bit light.

Would still like to ride down that way with a local though, my mate in Dorking seems to have retired from MTB.

Greg – the custom seat tube cost was actually £175 (HFTH undercharged you and you need to go back and see them). Nicolai revised their custom charges in the Autumn – it's now £300 where a change of geometry is required and £175 for tubing/gusset/headtube type changes where the geometry doesn't change.

(HFTH undercharged you and you need to go back and see them).

Gutted 😉

chakaping, I am in Surrey for the next 3/4 weeks, so if you want to ride with a Lapierre nut gis a shout!

that tubes makes more sense now explained. thought you had shelled out £90 to get a tube changed to fit a £100 seatpost…

seatstays look… um… strong!

That'd be great Nasher. I'll drop you an email to the address in yr profile.