Fanylion Mountain Bike Team
Official site of the Fanylion Mountain Bike Team. Includes mountain bike ride guides, gear reviews, bike maintenance, team reports and rider profiles of the Fanylion Racing Team.
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Nicolai Helius FR
It is worth mentioning briefly how this test ride came about: I am currently on the hunt for a new steed and have managed to get my final shortlist down to 3 bikes, one of which is the Nicolai Helius FR, which was assured by Mike at Nicolai UK is not a true freeride bike but more of a Hardcore XC bike; just what I am looking for. After posting a thread on Singletrack World I manage to find a chap called Rorie who has a Helius FR. This in itself is no mean feat, as they are hardly common bikes, and to amaze me further he says that if I want he will meet me and let me have a ride on it. *Fany-Tastic thinks I, but where in the UK does he live? “Do you know Northallerton?” he says, “Know it?” I reply “ I come from there!” So I duly met Rorie on a fine Spring Sunday morning to have a ride of his Helius FR.
This bike makes a huge first impression. The first think I noticed was the size of the thing. The tubes are massive, not so much the main triangle, but the stays look indestructible, rectangular mothers with ‘VCS 2.6’ stamped into them to illustrate the max tyre size they can take. Then the beefy shock mounts catch your eye, with the neat machining, and then your eyes run all over the machine, picking up neat and stylish touches everywhere: the hourglass shaped head tube, the tidy cable routing, the seatpost tower, and those huge, huge stays.
My eyes were then assaulted by a pair of bright green Bomber forks, which Rorie advised sheepishly would be replaced very soon with a pair of Pace 140’s.
The bike felt pretty weighty, I guessed at around the 34lb mark, and Rorie said it was built for hardcore activity and not to be lightweight. The huge knobbly IRC mud tyres must have weighed at least a couple of pounds each.
Rorie weighs approx ˝ a stone more then me, so he wound some pre-load off the rear shock to give more sag, though I would rather have had the shock properly set up to get a better picture, but when you are only having a quick spin you can’t go messing up a bloke’s shock settings up can you?
We set off up the road towards Black Hambleton for a technical climb and a technical descent. On the climb, the 4 bar rear was superb, tracking over rocks without any associated pedal feedback I am used to with my single pivot Attack Trail. I used to believe that the effect of pedalling in stiffening the rear suspension was a benefit of single pivot designs, but the Helius was proving to be very different and far superior. The rig climbed until the big wobbly tyres span out on the smooth rock. I was impressed.
At the top we turned round and prepared for one of the best descents in Yorkshire. I took the lead and soon got into all sorts of trouble; more used to the plush action of my Fox Vanilla forks, I soon found the old Bombers packed down and not doing much at all. Risking going over the bars I had to slow and never really gave the rear end the thrashing it deserved. Lateral stability of the rear felt awesome however, with none of the sideways flexing I have become used to with the Marin. This was one stable beast.
We then headed over towards Sheepwash and another technical descent, which went much the same way as the first, with the forks packing down and leaving me getting a hammering as I struggled to control the bike.
We then did a longer, semi-technical climb up towards the BT station and it was here that as well as the solid 4 bar action I also felt something else come into play: the weight of the bike. As we climbed I could feel the bike getting heavier and heavier as I struggled to keep any pace up, even though the suspension was quietly and capably doing its thing.
A final blast down the Lyke Wake walk (again hanging on for dear life as the forks did nothing) and Rorie nearly stacked my Marin and the test was over.
I was extremely grateful to Rorie for letting my ride his pride and joy (which he has only had for a couple of months) and am looking forward to having another ride when he gets his Pace forks fitted. Hopefully some lighter tyres will transform the bike, though I have my doubts. I doubt the weight will drop below 30lbs and the bike seemed to climb heavy, being much more suited to going down than up. Whilst this will suit some riders down to the ground, preferring to haul their bikes up slowly ready for the gravity assisted thrills of the descent, this isn’t what I want from my new bike. I need a bike that goes up as well as it goes down. Maybe the Helius CC (XC version) is the one for me? Hopefully get a test ride of one of those too in the near future.
Fany fact
The quickest way back to the car is to keep going.