First Look: Sick Bicycle Co. Titanium DFA And A Look At The Future

If you were to think of a young startup brand that knows how to hit the hype button in the right places you might look at a tech brand from Silicon Valley, but Sick Bicycle Co. also meets that criteria.

Chances are you’ve read about Sick Bicycle Co. either here, in the forum or you’ve seen them on Instagram. If you haven’t you likely have never heard of the World Wide Web either.

Etoile* handmade bicycles at Bespoked 2022

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The Sick Bicycle’s Co. range of products began with a single hardtail, but it has now filled out to included titanium hardtail, Pinion gearbox bikes, clothing and a range of full-suspension bikes.

And that brings us nicely on to Fort William and a chance meeting with Joe Cantello and his gorgeous Sick Bicycles DFA a.k.a “Death From Above”.

Joe’s a good guy and obviously has the patience of a saint as he spent most of his weekend answering the same questions over and over again by pretty much everyone at Fort William.

The DFA has been developed by “Sick Laboratories Special Projects” division, the department at Sick that works on its latest creations, and testing before frames go into production.

There isn’t a single feature of the frame that doesn’t stand out. It’s crafted from exotic Ti-3Al-2.5V Grade 9 Aerospace Titanium tubing, which is designed to be stiff at the suspension fulcrums but forgiving where it matters to reduce rider fatigue.

At 180mm of travel it follows the new breed of big travel 29er bikes that can be ridden uphill and as such features Sick’s shortlink suspension designed to fight pedal bob for winching duty, but remaining supple enough for freeride lines.

Keeping with the cutting edge nature of the bike, the DFA’s geometry is positively modern too. Joe’s bike is an XL with chasm crossing 525mm reach and 62° head angle. Even a medium sized frame gets a generous 480mm reach, a full 40mm longer than the Canyon Spectral reviewed earlier in the year.

The prototype frame that we saw at Fort William was an impressive thing to behold and we especially liked the machined head badge and subtle Sick branding.

For added eye candy, Joe has chosen a rather sexy build kit for his DFA, including an Ohlin’s coil shock, Spank wheels, Box components rear mech, Saint cranks, Hope V4 brakes, but the jewel in the crown is the Intend Edge suspension fork.

The Edge is a USD single crown fork with up to 175mm travel that weighs only 2,030g. The handmade in Germany fork costs a cool 1,749 Euros and if you want one you’ll have to sit on a waiting list for around 4 months! Pretty exclusive.

Sick tells us that the DFA is available to order now for £2,499 as a frame only (no shock), but there is a 45-day production delay, so you’ll have to be patient.

Sick Bicycle Co. DFA Features

• Ti-3Al-2.5V (Grade 9) Aerospace Titanium tubing
• 180mm travel
• Shortlink suspension
• 525mm reach (XL)
• 62 head angle
• 76 seat angle
• 29+ wheel compatible
• Boost hub spacing
• 73mm threaded bottom bracket
• 31.6mm seat post diameter

A Look At The Future

Not ones to twiddle their thumbs, Sick has already begun work on its next product and this is something that we are really eager to see in the flesh.

The new bike is called the Sleipnir (the 8 legged horse ridden by Odin, duh!) and…well…just look at it!

It looks like a futuristic version of a Brooklyn Machine Works bike from back in the day complete with 2 chains, Pinion Gearbox, and a backward pedal.

Details are limited but we know that it will be another 29er, will have 180mm travel, and a 6061 T6 hydroformed frame. It’s also understood that Sick plans to use crowdfunding to get the Sleipnir project into production. We’ll have news on that once it goes live.

What do you think of Sick Bicycle Co. and its latest frames? Head to the comments section below and let us know.