When ex pro-racer Sergio Finazzi started hand-building bikes in Italy in 1992, titanium was the go-to material for the premium bike of practically every brand. 24 years later and there are only a few titanium specialists left, and none who push the idea of a full Ti chassis as far as Nevi.
- Find out how titanium specialist Moots handcrafts its beautiful bicycles
- Quiz: how well do you know hardtail mountain bikes?
For a start, the 825g titanium fork is totally unique to Nevi. Cowled dropouts are welded on to super fat, tapering oval legs and then welded diagonally onto a hollow cast crown with tapered steerer. The welding isn’t the neatest we’ve seen and the crown has some cellulite surface dimpling from the casting, and at £1,300 it’s more expensive than any XC suspension fork. Nevi’s titanium work for industrial, automotive and aerospace clients means no one else has the in-house expertise to build anything like it, though. Nevi also supplies a bottle of frame cleaning oil in a little wooden book to keep your Ti bride lubed and gleaming.
The frame isn’t short of impressive features either, as it’s the first Nevi MTB frame to use a super thin wall (0.58mm thick to be precise) inverted kite shape 6AL-4V down tube. It’s a signature piece that Nevi has been hand fabricating and evolving in its workshop for the past 20 years on its road bikes, so it’s certainly not unproven.
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If you prefer a conventional round down tube, then the K2 pairs a 48mm diameter pipe with the same tapered head tube as the Gobi, while the Maniva uses a 1.125in head tube and 42mm down tube for a more compliant ride.
The ovalised top tube and round seat tube are 3AL-2.5V alloy complete with a welded cable stop for the top pull front mech and twin bottle cage mounts. We were surprised to see that the cable guides under the top tube are riveted, but that means less danger of accidentally burning through the super light tubes when welding.
An old-school ride
- Price: £3,320 (Frame) £1,300 (Fork), US and Australian pricing not available
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