A perfect bike? Top optics? Top geometry? Reliable function? And all that directly from the manufacturer at a fair price? That would be horror for Tony Keller. "Where others stop, I'm just getting started!" says his flyer, which he has been handing out in all directions for an hour. To everyone who sees him here on the BIKE Festival in Willingen on his sparkling purple trail hardtail. And there are a lot of them.
Keller is a tuning fan through and through. He customises mountain bikes of all kinds with fetishistic devotion. And because this is of course an expensive hobby and he was also running out of space to store all the jewellery, he decided to make a clever move a few years ago. He founded the company Keller Customs. Speciality: Customised superstructures. Anything is possible.
"But this bike here is my own," Tony clarifies. You can see the pride in his face. Carefully, as if it were made of glass, he manoeuvres the bike into the perfect sunlight angle. The high-gloss paint reflects the light like a mirror. Sparkle. Blingbling. A spectral event. Which is not without consequence. Once again, a few passers-by have stopped to take photos on their mobile phones. Tony pulls a few flyers out of his pocket and holds them out to the curious. "Here, if you ever have a project. You've come to the right place."
The concept for the trail hardtail, he explains, was more of a spontaneous inspiration. A nod to the colour purple, which was the superstar among anodised shades at the beginning of the nineties and has been festering on the compost heap of fashion waves ever since. "Purple is often mocked as the 'last attempt'," says Tony: "So I wanted to show how cool it can actually look."
He chose a steel frame from the Swabian company 2SoulsCycles as the basis. Adjustable dropouts, geometry for 120 mm suspension forks, steeply sloping, supported top tube. And, as a visual highlight: an interrupted seat tube that is open at the bottom. Tony opted for a bright "Candy Purple Chrome" powder coating, which was applied in an ultra-elaborate three-coat process. The dip tubes of the Magura fork were of course painted at the same time.
To provide an effective contrast to the crazy luminous purple, Tony chose gel green as the "counter colour". The carbon rims were given a corresponding skull design with the help of a water transfer print. To ensure that the artwork is shown to its full advantage, no lettering or decorations were used on the frame.
Tony spared no expense or effort to realise the purple-green concept. While he was sent the headset shells and the stem from Acros in raw aluminium so that he could have the parts anodised according to his own ideas, he first had to do a lot of fiddly work on other parts. The X01 rear derailleur, Rock Shox dropper post and even the lockout lever were completely dismantled and machined so that the individual parts, including all the screws, could be dyed.
Only the saddle is as the manufacturer created it. But there is a good reason for this. The Selle Italia Flite is a nod to the good, flashy nineties. The original model of this classic is still available to buy. It is the father of all lightweight saddles. "Fits perfectly," grins Tony.
His girlfriend Catharina Braun stands next to him and smiles benevolently. Although she doesn't work on bikes herself, she fully understands Tony's passion. He recently built her a ratty fatbike. The bike is no less exclusive than the purple and green 2SoulsCycles.
The carbon frame comes from Keller Customs' own range. It is made in the Far East, but is of high technical quality and therefore a perfect tuning base. The blue and white colours extend across the frame tubes, the cockpit, the Rock Shox fork, the Tune seat post and the rims. Everything has been specially painted. The actual contrasting colour this time is red. Headset, cranks, rear derailleur, spoke nipples, paddles - everything is anodised accordingly. The cranks are a particular eye-catcher. A special edition that Tony has realised together with lightweight construction supplier B.O.R. Germany. Even the Keller Customs logo is incorporated.
"Almost too good to ride," says Tony. The next mobile phone cameras are already pointed at him. Catharina and Tony routinely strike a pose. Other passers-by jog up curiously. What a show! Something like this would never have happened to them, even with the most expensive production bikes.
