When are too many skulls not enough? Halloween, of course. In celebration of one of the high points of the cyclist’s calendar, we present a most appropriately-decorated off-road racer from Germany: the Keller Customs Grave Digger.
This could very well be the first bike to be totally dipped in water-transfer paint, from the head tube to the rear rim, and regardless of what you think of the final result, you have to admit… it’s spectacular.
Tony Keller founded Keller Customs in 2013 as a way of expressing his desire to create the most over-the-top mountain bikes available — utilizing the most expensive and high-end components possible, and the Grave Digger is his latest.
It was built for Daniel Bürgin, whose first outing on his new Grave Digger was a 24hr/400km solo race, where it stood up respectfully well. We’ve featured another of his bikes before, the SingleBe Aladdin.
Tony’s a maestro of anodizing and custom paintwork and embraced the chance to coat a frame with a water-transfer coating. On top of that, all aluminum parts — stem, clamp, levers, hanger, chainring, and X01 Eagle derailleur were anodized to match.
The world’s lightest disc brake — Trickstuff’s Piccola — were installed, once Daniel had drilled them to save even more weight. A Newmen seatpost, stem, bar, and hubs were also spec’d, along with a 1200g wheelset, and a Fox Factory 32 Stepcast fork.
Daniel primarily competes in endurance races and so built the Grave Digger with a focus on minimum weight. The scales tipped at 8.4kg — not including dust — a veritable skeleton of a bike.
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