GEAR
Copper plating and verdigris fades, idler wheels on the lower linkages, frames CNC’d from solid alloy billets… we track down the weird and wonderful bikes of 2023
STAYER OMG
You have to go some to truly stand out now, but we reckon this Stayer OMG has managed it. Built around a TIG-welded Columbus Zona steel rigid frame, the OMG was subjected to copper plating and a patination process that saw it produce a verdigris fade. The upshot is a bike that is copper at the rear end creeping into the familiar green turquoise of verdigris over the front. The head badge and name are shot-blasted out of the verdigris. Stunning.
The man behind the concept is Lewis Toghill of Empress Works who was inspired by nickel-plated BMX frames and the ever-changing finish and the weathering of modern building materials. Toghill experimented painstakingly for over two months with various chemicals before achieving a patina he was happy with. “It begins to show some of the multiple material states that the plated finish can exist in,” Lewis says.
A 29in-wheeled singlespeeder, the OMG frame features a custom yoke designed by Hulsroy and machined by Bear Frame Supplies with Paragon Machine Works dropouts. The fork is a Slayer Stiff As. Short-reach bullmoose bars, and lightweight Pauls Components brake levers, keep the weight down, while the calipers – currently Magura discs – will be Yokozuna rim brakes on the stock bike. Polished Middleburn cranks drive a 1x1 Wolf Tooth sprocket. There’s copper wire retaining the brake cables in their guides, and a peenhammered stem cap.
There is no price on this bike because it is not for sale. It was one of three OMG frames East London-based Stayer raffled off to help raise funds for the Ultra Distance Scholarship, an initiative to make long-distance riding and racing more inclusive and diverse.
ACTOFIVE CYCLES P-TRAIN 165
Designed in Dresden, Germany by Simon Metzner, the P-Train frame is CNC-machined from two billets of 7075-T6 aluminium. It’s then anodised and the two pieces bonded together. The result is an indiscernible seam and a finish that defies you not to stroke it. Any fat on the similarly made swingarm has been reduced until the stays look sculpted like bones; shoulder blades perhaps.
Metzner designed the bike for enduro or park use, so nominally it gets 165mm travel. Different shock and link combinations are available that can increase that figure to 175mm or reduce it to 155mm or 145mm.
The P-Train sports an idler pulley wheel to manage chain growth and pedal kickback from its high-pivot layout. The idler can be run in two positions to optimise pedalling (low) or descending (high).
An optional extra on the latest P-Train model is called ‘Brake Torque Support’ or BTS, which is a floating brake arm
