When Chumba‘s client, Ruben, reached out about making a SLACKR Titanium tribute bike for his late mother, Maria, with a Dia de Los Muertos theme, the Austin, Texas-based framebuilder operation knew it had an opportunity to make something special. Let’s check it out below!
To do the concept justice, Chumba knew it needed vibrant color and original artwork. Industry Nine reached out about collaborating on a mountain bike for the Philly Bike Expo to showcase their new Hydra2 wheelset and their incredible anodizing skills. Using the bike as a canvas, the brand connected with local tattoo and pinstripe artist Xavier Robles III to bring the artwork to life.
Xavier took the concept and developed a handful of amazing options for us, bringing his skills into play with curvaceous pinstripes, hand-drawn text and symbolic art. Once the design was done, Vince from Chumba created a digital file for our vinyl cutter and masked it onto the bike and began anodizing.
Playing with the colors and having fun with this detailed art was an exhilarating experience, pushing the boundaries of what we have done with in-house anodizing previously. Industry Nine was kind enough to anodize a custom fade on the wheelset. Surrounding the blue Hydra2 hubs are Bronze or Gold faded spokes. We played off that and faded the bike’s graphics from vibrant blue to gold/bronze.
Build Spec:
- Industry Nine Hydra2 Enduro wheels
- Cane Creek Helm Mkii Air 150mm fork
- Magura MT Trail SL brakes 4 piston F/R
- 5dev Titanium Trail crankset
- Vittoria 29×2.4” tires
- SRAM XX Transmission and power meter
Chumba would like to extend a special thanks to Ruben for trusting it for this special project and allowing the brand to share it at the Philly Bike Expo, Xavier Robles III for bringing the design to life, and Industry Nine for sharing our bike at the show and being a creative partner on the color concepts.
Check out the SLACKR options at Chumba USA.
