When our client, Ruben, reached out about making a SLACKR Titanium tribute bike for his late mother, Maria, with a Dia de Los Muertos theme, we knew we had an opportunity to make something special.

To do the concept justice, we knew we 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 Enduro Carbon wheelset and their incredible anodizing skills. Using the bike as a canvas we 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 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.