# NICOLAI-Stippvisite (November 2007)



## Wilhelm (21. Januar 2008)

Interessante Bilder einer NICOLAI-Werksbesichtigung (November 2007) gibt es hier:
http://forums.mtbr.com/showthread.php?t=353530
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cmadrigal/sets/72157602829085298/.





*Maximum Stoke Day - Nicolai Factory Visit* 
Today was the big day... My dream of making a visit to the Nicolai Factory, Offices became a reality...

I organised this visit with Falco Milne (Marketing, Communications Manager), once the organisation was done, Crisillo decided to join me. 

So I flew from Barcelona to Frankfurt, met up with Crisillo (awesome guy) got the rental and made our way towards Hannover more of less. Nicolai is based some 50Km from Hannover. And yes, when I say it is a small town where Nicolai are based, think really really small, maybe a town of 400 people, I kid you not. A stunning little rural German town. Have travelled pretty extensively in Germany in the rural areas, and this area was stunning....

See the little pictoral of the trip and Motel...











No drinks at the pub at arrival, was near midnight, great little local hotel though. Great breakfast...

In the morning we made our way to Nicolai. Was cool driving there, when you see the village, you just know it is going to be a quaint little town, you cannot even tell that there is a very classy bike frame factory, there is no sign out the front..

See below the offices etc....











A few details, the company kicked off more or less as it is now in 1997, at the time there were 4 staff, there is now 20 staff. Nicolai produces around 2000 frames per year, over the total range. The largest seller is off course the Helius FR. Around 30 GBoxx frames are built per year. The number of frames produced is increasing annually. Of the 20 staff it seemed that half if not more were involved in Design, R&D etc....

It was a greeat experience to sit down with Kalle Nicolai. Kalle went over some history etc, the image the company recieved with the first gearbox models, the Nucleor type bikes as Kalle calls them... It is a life dream for Kalle to see gearbox's as the standard.

We were allowed to take pictures anywhere, except in the R&D main room, but we were aloud in there. Was great to see the new generation gearbox's, belt drive systems, allsorts... The future will for sure be very good for us biker peeps...

Next photos are of the manufacturing part so to speak. The photos will speak for themselves. 

Falco & the C&C Machines

http://www.whafe.com/Nicolai Factory/Falco & C&C Machines.jpg

Rear Chain Stays, all milled, look hot...






Getting the tubes ready for an Argon






Rear der hangers






GBoxx components (these are now being licensed out to other companies for use)






Setting up for welding
















*I think my fav photo I took*






Fresh as fillets, yummy yummy 
















Ali ready for milling, was a cool looking Ali library











Prep after paining


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## Wilhelm (21. Januar 2008)

Frames frames and more frames

http://www.whafe.com/Nicolai Factory/Frames & More Frames 1.jpg

http://www.whafe.com/Nicolai Factory/Frames & More Frames 2.jpg

The new 2008 Helius FR (Yummy)











From Left, Falco, Kalle and Whafe (I look like a focking giant on this bike)






Falco's Steed, a Helius ST, felt sweet to through a leg over











The new 2008 ION, this felt great. The European SRAM team, rate this bike hugely, like mentioned the best riding DH bike they have been on. Interestingly enough, the team feel it is best in the 8 inch mode, NOT 9. The suspension works what the deem best in this setting.
















Sorry, my ugly mug on a bike again for a few pics
















This is Fred's new Sky Camo 2008 Helius CC. I spoke to Fred if I can post the shots, he was more than happy. He will be happier too when he gets the frame, and I guess even more happier happier when his ass is hauling ass on it. It looks mint as. It is awaiting shipping!!!!!











Overall, I had a fantastic near 4 hours at the Nicolai Factory. As am sure that Crisillo did, he will post up as well...

The whole team at Nicolai were great hosts, hugely passionate, and seemed a happy happy team, I dont just say that lightly. I have loads of staff and I hope that outside visitors would think my team was this happy.

There is for sure some very bright engineers working on things in R and D too. The area where the GBoxx development was hapenning was pretty cool indeed. Some very cool looking stuff...

I will type up more if indeed questions are asked, if you would like some of the pics high res, please PM me and I will email them to you...

Cheers
Whafe





__________________
tibug - *you tiny brained wiper of other people's bottoms!* Do your research before criticizing! ... LMFAO
*www.whafe.com*


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## Wilhelm (21. Januar 2008)

well..what can I add..... it just ruled!

The whole Nicolai team is extremely cool......... everybody was happy and proud of their work and Falco was awesome showing us around, explaining everything to the tiniest detail....

and to top it all off, Karl (Nicolai) invites us to talk about bikes over some coffee and cookies.... extremely down-to-earth and just generally-cool guy

I expected it to be cool.... but not THAT cool...I mean basically we spent the whole morning around the factory and discussing bikes...amazing stuff

You can find all my pics from the visit here http://www.flickr.com/photos/cmadrig...7602829085298/

here are some highlights





08 Helius FR













The Helius ST













The Ion





























Falco, Karl and yours truly 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	








__________________
Close your mouth.... mud has very little nutritional value...

Riding pics and other stuff at Flickr


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## Wilhelm (21. Januar 2008)

some more

choose your colors 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	












milling and facing the BB and suspension pivot areas





last but not least....

my new pen holder (Nicolai TA rear hub shell that was out of spec), we also bought some Nicolai swag...great quality stuff! 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	







__________________
Close your mouth.... mud has very little nutritional value...

Riding pics and other stuff at Flickr


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## crisillo (21. Januar 2008)

Hey!


Die sind unsere Fotos! 


und das bin ich!


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## Wilhelm (21. Januar 2008)

Hallo crisillo,

die Bilder fand ich so cool , daß ich sie dem hiesigen Forum nicht vorenthalten wollte und ich hoffe, daß dies auf Eure Zustimmung trifft (die Quelle auf MTBR.com ist angegeben).


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## crisillo (21. Januar 2008)

Wilhelm schrieb:


> Hallo crisillo,
> 
> die Bilder fand ich so cool , daß ich sie dem hiesigen Forum nicht vorenthalten wollte und ich hoffe, daß dies auf Eure Zustimmung trifft (die Quelle auf MTBR.com ist angegeben).



Kein Problem, Wilhelm! (Ich glaube es ist auch kein Problem bei Whafe  )


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## Wilhelm (21. Januar 2008)

Alda,
bei *14,244* total posts  als Moderator auf MTBR.com ist wirklich schade, Dich hier im Forum so selten zu treffen.


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## crisillo (21. Januar 2008)

Wilhelm schrieb:


> Alda,
> bei *14,244* total posts  als Moderator auf MTBR.com ist wirklich schade, Dich hier im Forum so selten zu treffen.




Mein Deutsch is nicht so gut, dann normalerweise schreibe ich lieber auf Englisch auf MTBR 

aber ich versuche mal


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## machero (21. Januar 2008)

hi!
vielen dank für den interessanten bericht und vor allendingen...
die vielen guten photos !!!!! 


Viele Grüsse
machero


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## guru39 (21. Januar 2008)

machero schrieb:


> hi!
> vielen dank für den interessanten bericht und vor allendingen...
> die vielen guten photos !!!!!
> 
> ...



Von mir auch vielen Dank!
Gruß Guru.


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## Dive-Mouse (2. Februar 2008)

Super Bericht! Ich bin richtig froh, dass ich mir gestern ein Helius FR bestellt habe. Jetzt muss ich wahrscheinlich "nur" 2 Monate warten...

Gruß
Tom (der Freund von Dive-Mouse)


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## KHUJAND (2. Februar 2008)




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