Alchemy Vs Fat Creations | Bike Check
March 9th, 2017
By Andrew Dodd in Bikes,Features
Alchemy Arktos – custom painted by Fat Creations
The Alchemy Arktos is an ultra high-end 150mm travel mountain ripper. Even in the standard finish it’s one of the nicest looking bikes on the market right now, but this complete one-off is next level.
With an unmistakeable Fat Creations paint job, this snow camo super-bike really needs to be seen in the flesh to be fully appreciated – it’s one of the very best custom paint jobs we’ve ever seen…
Unmistakeable quality of paint is just unbelievable. It is absolutely immaculate and has to be seen in the flesh to be fully appreciated. This is one of the best stand-out paint jobs we’ve seen – it just pops!
“The Alchemy was somewhere about 70 to 80 hours total work, of which you would be looking at around £1100 for that amount of work. There are ways to get a similar looking outcome for around £700, and perhaps half the hours involved, but sometimes it’s the little details on a job like this that make a big difference in time it takes”
Alistair Mclean, Fat Creations
Whilst Ali does the bulk of the actual painting, it’s his partner in crime Bex who does the delicate stencil and graphic work. You really need to see this in the flesh to see how perfect every single edge is. It’s a work of art and definitely a labour of love – a steady hand and immense patience is needed for this sort of work!
Underneath this insane paint job, the Alchemy Arktos features a dual-linkage platform called Sine Suspension that Alchemy licensed exclusively from David Earle. The name Sine derives from the way the shock rate appears on a graph – it looks like a sine wave. Effectively this means it’s regressive through the first part of the travel; progressive in the middle of the stroke then slightly regressive again in the last 15% of the stroke to enable the bike to use all 150mm of its rear-wheel travel. 
Here are the full details of the Alchemy Arktos frame:
- Wheel Size: 650b/27.5”
- Max Tire Clearance: 2.4″
- Boost 148 mm rear spacing
- Travel: 150mm / 6”
- Fox Float X shock
- Fork: 150-160mm compatibility
- Bottom Bracket: 73 mm threaded
- Seat Post: 31.6
- Headset: IS41 Upper – IS52 Lower
- Drive Train: 1x
- Eye-to-eye: 215.9mm
- Stroke: 64mm
- Suggested Sag: 30%
- Chainring clearance: 38t (need 3mm offset ring for Sram Eagle)
- Chainstay length: 438mm
- Bearings: Enduro 2 pieces BB 3930 LLU 6 pieces BB MR 21531 LLU MAX
- Frameset price £2999 (stock blue or yellow) or £3400 (carbon/green or black on black)
- More details available from distributor Saddleback right here
As expected, the Saddleback team have built this custom Alchemy Arktos with the best of the best. It’s dripping in colour coordinated kit, from the simple details like fork and shock graphics to lovely Chris King hubs. 
It’s also nice to see red anodised bolts on control clamps – which reminds us of those early years where people used to go to town to make their bike stand out from the next.
One of the brands that Saddleback distribute are Rotor, who make some of the nicest looking cranks we’ve seen. We should have a set for review soon, so more details on those to follow.
Even the top of the range XTR mech wasn’t quite good enough for a build like this, so anodised jockey wheels were needed to jazz things up a bit.
The overall look of this Alchemy Arktos is bang on though. It’s loud, proud and in your face but manages to look tasteful and classy. If the graphics on the Enve rims were red, it would be too much; like wise coloured grips or a saddle would have been a step too far.
This is how you take a super bike and turn it in to a hyper bike – well played chaps!
