01/02/2026
Metal bikes are rad. Metal components are rad. When you get everything made of metal, is it the ultimate rad? Yes, of course, that’s a stupid question.
A local collector of nice bikes comes to me with an idea about a bike build every now and then. And I was stoked when he told me he landed a new frame…
There’s a lot of custom stuff on this bike you can’t just buy off the shelf, which made it more fun to build, especially when working with the vendors directly.
The frame is a Tilt, the brand’s flagship 138mm trail bike. However, the rider asked for a special finish, and Canfield delivered: a full finish. Essentially, it’s a thin ceramic coating that is tougher than most any paints and finishes on the market.
The suspension is 2026+ . The front is the new Factory 140mm, 36SL, and the rear is the new Factory Float X2.
White industries played a huge roll in this build offering a cool finish. I called them up asking for hubs, bottom bracket, cranks, chainring, and headset. Typically, they come with silver outlines for their logos via machine work post anodizing. I asked them to logo the parts and then anodize them for their classic look of the 90’s; a huge thanks to for making this happen 🤠.
The brakes were the last piece of the puzzle as they are new EVO TR4 brakes in gunmetal and black. Were ordered them before they were available stateside. Yes, they work awesome.
The wheels are again, White Indistries XMR hubs laced to Triad Carbon hoops with a 30mm internal width. The keep the theme of “metal” going, I used brass nips in their natural brass colorway. They were just released this year and I have been loving building with them. Those were wrapped in Ibex because the look cool, and they also work very well.
The cockpit is a combination of and . We even went as far as replacing the thin pad for the dropper lever to match the grips, seatpost band and saddle. We wanted every contact point to be matching and ‘cool’.
•
••
•••
•
