Nearly choked on my tea whilst playing around with the Nicolai order generator…..the frame alone comes in at 2800EUR!
2011 AM, tapered steerer, some tailoring for slacker HA, lower BB, raw finish, maxle 142×12 and BAM!!! 2800EUR…..
Are they really that good!?

sticking to the Lapierre then? 😉

German tat.

yes – they’re rubbish.

(only because I have a CC and don’t Nicolais to turn into the next Turner and been round every blooming corner on every blooming trail centre…)

Kerphwoar. Worth it for the aesthetics alone IMO – that thing could crush a Lapierre’s skull with its bare hands. 😈

And without custom tailoring…. 1800 euro

Yes very good

I would guess standard spec would suit most riders……

Colour would be hardest choice!

Good Luck

Had mine for 6 months replacing my ASX-R of 5 years. Belting bike all round and perfect for my needs. Climbs really well for a big bike although i have a slightly lardy 40lb build. cough. The detail is beautiful.

There are deals to be had on them. Also got to note the old £ is a lot weaker these days.

You can get a standard frame for around £1500 with out a shock, find a premium frame for another manufacture for less then that. coves/intense/turner/santa cruz are all around that price.

Suburban 40lbs!!!! mines 32

Ian the AM is £1700 stock and that’s without a damper. Where are you getting £1500 from, is someone discounting? 👿

VikingBoy – I hear you on the customising route; it’s very expensive to go custom now. It used to cost £300 extra and I’ve noticed it’s now double that – yes it really does seem to be £600!

However, here’s what you can do to get what you want. Just order the AM with a 1.5 head tube (£90 extra) and fit a cane creek angle reducer set.

To add to that, the AM has been revised slightly and so now has a 66.5 degree HA with a 160mm fork. Do you really need anything slacker than that? I’ve used mine, with a 67.5 degree HA, at various DH venues including Gawton and the Alps and the HA and BB height are not what’s holding the bike back in terms of speed over this type of terrain, it’s the fact that the AM is not a DH bike. Either you want a DH bike or you want an all mountain bike? Just a thought.

On the BB issue, bear in mind the AM’s is set to 13.7″ with 171mm of travel (6.5″). An Orange Five is 13.2″ but with just 140mm of travel, so really the AM’s BB is already super low.

worth every penny imo. way better built than anything else on the FS market. nothing else comes close with Nicolai’s attention to detail and frame build quality.

I have a 2009 AM – best money I’ve ever spent.

currently overbuilt (37lb with pedals) pure fun machine… my lightweight XC rigs are feeling unused, since my 1st chouice is the AM for steep & technical days in the peaks.

I’m sure I could build it lighter, but why bother, I have XC bikes for lightweight, and riding this big rig on 5+hr rides gets you darn fit.

Mister T how do you get to 37lbs? Mine’s at 32.5lbs and that’s with a coil damper and Fox 36 (float mind you).

HAving said that, I just got a set of coil RS Totems I had lying around (as you do) modified to work with the AM.

Picking mine up tomorrow – cannae wait. All I need is Trout’s LL3 to arrive in the post and it is after work night riding heaven for me this week.

Waiting impatiently for mine to turn up! Got a pile of bits ready to go and i can’t wait. Price is pretty reasonable considering the quality and attention to detail IMO.

great info guys, thank you.
I’ll take a pop down to the local BS in Dorking who stock them and see whats what.
I’ve been very happy knocking around on an ‘old’ Lapierre Spicy but feel peeved at having to buy a full bike to just transplant all my bits on to it, in Lapierres wisdom they wont sell just a frameset hence looking at options now.
thanks all
Ian

timpol on here has one i think.

Over priced german tat 🙂

I like em. They’re lovely.

geetee1972 – 37lb due to heavy but brilliant Wotan forks, 2.4 rubber queens on 5.1 rims & DT440FR hubs maxle f&r, xt drivechain, syncros FR finishing kit. And crank bro 3 pedals. Using rp23 shock.
Ive always been a bit of a weight weenie till now, and now I fancy fat bikes! I mean skinny bikes are great, and still love them, but fat bikes are dirty fun things that love abuse and let you come back for more and more. I think mine wears fishnets thigh highs and carries a whip but she’s classy and very capable of gymnastics.

I managed to get my am upto 38.5 lbs so your doing well, managed to trim 6.5lbs of now with out reducing the strength (within reason)

33lbs – 1.5″, HammerSchnizzle, Flow/ProII (12mm), 200mm V2 brakes, Float-36, Float-R, Big Betties and NO CARBON

35lbs with a better/stronger/grippier/heavier rear tyre and a DHX4.0 Coil.

Absolutely love it for everything – especially so now the suspension works properly with the coil on the back :twisted:.

Easy lose weight, remove HummerSchnozzle, a sorted rear air shock, lighter tyres, smaller brakes, Carbon Blingness – but then I would not be so happy to throw it down mountains.

Lite weight is not always the answer 🙄

My last Nicolai was custom but this is a stock medium and it fits perfectly.

Any pics messiah, got Hammerschnoozle and been tempted by AM for a while, although the new 575 looks pretty nice as well.

mines ~31-33lbs with either air or CCDB and joplin.

gratuitous pics ?

oh – it’s now 2 years old.

ano black finish is worn in places [cable rub priomarily] and comes up like new with a smear of GT85.

been through 3 middle rings, 5 chains and 3 cassettes as well as numerous fork and shocks and the frame is as true as it left the factory and the bearings are in original condition WITHOUT any service [not clever, but so far unnecessary].

i opted for the crud mounts under the DT and although some people suggest this weakens the frame, no probs !

also, mine has the standard rear QR and there is NO discernible difference in stiffness over my friends that run the maxle. the only difference is security.

the penalty is slightly increased weight but that provides the stiffness and reide tracking accuracy…

my 6 pack was comparable, but not at warp factor 10.

i suffer with pedal strike due to the fashionably low BB height, but i s’pose that’s the price of improved handling [apparently].

remember that quality lasts a lot longer than the price being remembered and have a word with dipper at gravity sports if you need insider dealer info :

http://www.gravity-sports.co.uk

HTH !

akira – the 575 is not comparable to the AM – more an AC wannabee….sort of thingy.

the AM is a NOMAD eater basically.

Couple of pics for akira

Ref – TLR’s pedal strike. I have that issue if I run the Float-R rear shock at 30% sag as the shock blows through the mid stroke. I can either run the air shock too firm and live with the poor performance… or bung on the Coil DHX4.0 and live with the minor weight penalty (for much better suspension).

I will get round to custom tuning the two shocks I have at some point in time as there is room for improvement, but at the moment the coil is doing a good job. It’s worth having a chat with TFT (or any shock tuner) about what you want the bike/shock to do… most seem to agree that if your after performance on a bike like this then coil is the answer.

The bottom bracket is not low on my AM – the only time I get pedal strike is when the suspension is poorly set up, either too soft or too much damping jacking it down (as a result of Fox Pro Pedal Pish damping system).

ooo is this turning into a post a pic of your am.

Well, if you insist…..

DSC00271 by ianpindir, on Flickr

Ive amazingly lost 2lb of weight from the bike… just re weighed it and it’s down to 35lb….

I did notice quite a little puddle of water drained out of the seat tube when I tuned it over with seat post removed and left it to dry out this morning. (after washing) – but can’t imagine that was more than an ounce….

maybe it’s getting lighter through use… i.e. fitter bike… loosing the spare tyre around it’s midrift… 😯