Built by Vital MTBers: One-of-a-Kind, Handmade Mountain Bikes 10

Vital MTB's Bike Check section is a trove of tasty, technical, two-wheeled treasures. From major brand stock setups to boutique builds, our community members proudly share their rides with the world. But not every Vital MTBer is content with a mass produced or even minimally produced chassis, so they take upon themselves to design and build their own mountain bikes from scratch. Some creations are immaculate, others are rough and ready. Some are engineering marvels, others are simple and refined. Regardless of design, look and finish, all the fabulous fabrications are labors of love. Get inspired by a small sampling of one-of-kind whips created from imagination, hard work, metal, fire, carbon, glue, bolts and determination.

Made by a 16-year-old - Carter Bilawchuk's Euler Trail Prototype

• Material: Mix of 6061 and alsi10mg aluminum
• Rear Travel: 137mm rear travel, 400 lb spring, 185x55 trunnion mount
• Front Travel: 140mm
• Wheel size: Dual 27.5

Carter says, "This is my first frame, the goal was to make a small playful bike, perfect for my local trails. It uses a dual link suspension platform for good pedaling and progression. Please check out the whole process on instagram @eulerbikes.

After a year long journey, I can finally present my attempt at creating my dream bike. This is my best effort across many disciplines involving framebuilding, design, engineering and storytelling."

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Handmade, School Passion Project - THE EAGLE

• Material: 4130 chromoly
• Travel: Hardtail
• Wheel size: Mixed

Eddie_eagle says, "THE EAGLE is a one-off, hand-built steel hardtail designed and built from scratch during my time at high school. Using some radical custom geometry, 4130 chromoly tubing, and a homemade 3D-printed frame jig, it took over two years to plan, fabricate, weld, and finish. Built on a tight budget with mostly second-hand parts, it was immediately bikepacked, daily-ridden, stolen and recovered, and then raced proving itself on singletrack. Raw, unconventional, and completely unique, it’s a bike built through obsession, problem-solving, and doing things the hard way."

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First Frame Build by TCH74

• Material: 4130 chromoly fillet brazed
• Travel: 150mm rear, 160mm front
• Wheel size: Dual 27.5

TCH74 says, "My first frame build. Couldn't be bothered smoothing out the fillet braze (just want to ride it). Stuffed up the axle to crown measurement and had to add an extension to the bottom of the headtube so that the BB wasn't too low. HA 65deg, SA 76deg, CS 440mm, BB 345mm, Reach 470mm

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Gullwing Chip Bandit 149

• Material: Home-built lug and carbon tube
• Travel: 160 front, 149mm rear
• Wheel size: Dual 29

Thomas van der Ploeg says, "Not a real brand. I designed and made this bike as a personal project and to [hopefully] last me a long time. Basically everything is designed with longevity in mind, so big bearings, doubling up at key points, not trunnion, minimal threads in the frame (better alignment, can replace a bolt rather than a whole frame member), press in cups etc. Basically aiming for a pretty "normal" bike that doesn't have too many riding quirks or excessive complexity. This project came with a bunch of interesting and fun problems to solve, like designing so that the lugs were affordable, speccing the tube layups, figuring out how to ensure accurate dimensions and alignment without a surface plate, mill, or lathe. Knowing which dimensions will affect the kinematic (and how) meant that I could focus on getting those accurate, and use others as "follower dimensions" to absorb a tolerance stack without random undesired effects, and designing the jig to work with and within these limitations. 

Still have a few small things to do (furniture feet on the chainstay is not the final solution, and I have some pour molds planned), and the parts spec is a total mixed bag of odds and ends from a cheap second hand donor bike - but it's all functional, solid, and can be replaced as it becomes affordable..."

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Bringing Back ATB - Handmade Steel ATB

• Material: Steel
• Travel: None
• Wheel size: Dual 29

What thirtytwo23 says, "Hand built frame I made for gravel/xc and bike packing."

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• Material: Aluminum
• Travel: Unknown
• Wheel Size: Dual 29?

Devotion_Industries says, "Hey, if you’re reading this I’m a teen making mtb frames in Montreal! I’m currently building a new one, go check it out on instagram!"

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Kaleidoscope Hand-built Carbon

• Material: Carbon
• Travel: 130mm front, 125mm rear
• Wheel size: Dual 29

What SleepingAwake says, "Completely home made carbon frame and the 3rd bike I've built. 3D modeling, tool design, engineering of carbon layups, building, painting and all was done with my own hands! 125mm/130mm travel, 65° head angle, 78° seat tube angle , 475mm reach, 430-ish mm chain stay length. An an absolute riot to ride on the flatter trails now that the conditions in the mountains are getting too wintery..."

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Built Bikes High Pivot Mullet

• Material: Mix of 853 Reynolds and T45 steel
• Travel: 180mm f/r
• Wheel size: Mixed wheel

What alex_hafod_trails says, "Designed and built by myself, in between digging and trail maintenance duties at Hafod Trails. Modelled in CAD, then hand crafted in a mix of 853 Reynolds and T45 steelIt features a high-pivot, inverted 4-bar design with asymmetric shock placement.180mm travel front and rear. 64-degree head angle, 78-degree effective seat tube angle, 480mm reach, 440 chainstays

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Have you made your own mountain bike? If so, we'd love to see it, so share it in our Bike Check section.