The Best Vital MTB Member Bike Checks - Shreddy Awards 8

It's no secret that Vital MTBers are borderline insane when it comes to showing off their precious custom and not-so-custom mountain bike builds. Our Bike Check section, with almost 11,000 bikes in it, is the place where these fanatics upload photos of their bikes and spout the intimate details of the build. If you’re not doing this yet, get to work! Out of 337 Vital Bike of the Day selections, we’ve picked seven as the cream of the 2018 crop, despite the impossible and hyper-subjective task. Our shrinks have been notified as we prepare for hurt feelings and crushed confidence after we read your “YOU SUCK! WHERE WAS THIS BIKE!" comments, so we’re ready. Are you? Here are Vital MTB’s top Member Bike Check builds for 2018.

Honorable Mention - Kim's Bike - Trek Slash 9.9 Memorial Build

 A gorgeous machine with a heavy story. Vital member, PrydeD, put together this eye-catching all-pink Trek Slash 9.9 as a memorial for his wife, who lost her battle with breast cancer in 2016. The bike was hand-painted by the talented artist over at Trek, featuring paisley and sugar skull along her name and sealed off with  PrydeD’s daughter’s name on the seat stays. A touching memorial to say the least. Well done Pryde and Trek.

Honorable Mention - Kelly McGarry's YT TUES Tribute Build

Our next bike is another celebration of memories living on. Vital member, Shinysideup was the winner of Kelly McGarry’s custom Rampage TUES frame from YT Industries. After Kelly’s passing (rest in peace McGazza), YT raffled off the frame with proceeds going to Paul Basagoitia. Shinysideup won the big man's bike and built it up beautifully in blue. There’s a Manitou Dorado, plenty of Race Face goods, SRAM X01 DH 7-speed setup, Reverse wheelset and Magura MT7 brakes. This is a one-of-a-kind bike that keeps Kelly’s memory living on. We miss you, Kelly!

5th Place - Fantaman's Candy Orange Extravaganza Specialized Demo 9

Interestingly enough, we have another Dorado in the house, but this one is attached to a piece of custom-painted eye candy. He goes by Fantaman on Vital MTB and his liquid orange Specialized Demo is pure juice! Look at the thing! Crystal FX laid the down the paint and polished accents make it the bike pop! Now it’s not just the looks, but the build is unique as well, with a singlespeed setup for simplicity. Titanium is all over this gem. The Dorado has Ti hardware, the Ohlins TTX22 has a Ti spring, which Fantaman says is no longer made, the stem is from Enamon out of Germany with Ti hardware, the chain is YBN's 10-speed titanium offering and the bars are titanium Thomsons. Claimed weight is 35 pounds 10 ounces. It may not be the lightest, but the candy-coated sexiness has us tempted to get in the van with this stranger.

4th Place - No Drivetrain, No Problem - The Pegged Commencal Supreme DH

Now can it be a Bike of the Day if it doesn’t have pedals, cranks, a chain or gears? We don’t care because Gabs' drivetrain-less, custom foot-pegged Commencal Supreme DH is out of this world. If nothing else, it’s outside of the box, that’s for sure! Gabs designed and created all the unique parts himself. He shreds this thing at Schladming, Austria, which is steep, rowdy and has very few pedaling sections. What does he do if things get flat? He scoots or walks. No biggie, right? Gabs has been very helpful in the comments of his bike check. He has his reasoning for going to pegs and notes that he originally tried pedals only in the bottom bracket area and that didn’t work well, so he designed the parts necessary to make the pegs work. He says spacing is similar to that of pedals on cranks and he wears motocross boots for safety versus his Five Tens. Would we want to own? Probably not. Would we want to ride it? DEFINITELY. Gabs even posted some of his times against "normal" DH bikes and held his own. Sometimes daring to be different pays off.

3rd Place - I LOVE GOOOOLLLLDD - Ibis Ripmo

Alright, back to reality. Well at least the reality of the rich and possibly famous. This Ibis Ripmo posted by Pro Bike Supply is dubbed I LOVE GOOOLDDD!! Now plenty of bike shops use Vital MTB’s Bike Check section to show off their fanciest builds, and we love it! Classy, not flashy, and full of the best bits in the game, if you had that poster of black and gold Lamborghini Countach in your room as a kid in 1983, you’ll feel right at home with with this Ripmo. There’s carbon everywhere, it’s 27 pounds, SRAM Eagle XX1 gold accents and ENVE carbon cockpit boost the bling. The custom gold decals by Stikrd.com would have Robin Leech and Loni Anderson all up in this biz. Dialed.

2nd Place - Hawaiian Sunset - aka Fez the Kona Process

Talk about the perfect Bike of the Day for Christmas. This custom-painted Kona Process from Chainline Bikes is nothing short of perfection and it dropped on the site  like Santa dropping the chimney on Christmas. They call it “Fez” and matched the custom paint with custom decals from Magik Graphics. A Marzocchi Bomber handles the hits up front as the ENVE carbon wheels and ENVE carbon cockpit take the sting away like a MaiTai after a hard day’s work. SRAM XX1 gold drivetrain accents take the build to the limit. This 31 pounds of pure bling is a like a Hawaiian sunset on two wheels and was THIS CLOSE to being winning our Bike Build of the Year with that last-minute entry.

1st Place - 2018 Vital MTB Member Bike Check of the Year - POWsLAYER's Transition Scout Named Pepper

And the Shreddy Award for Best Vital Bike Check of 2018 goes to PowSlayer and this beautiful Transtion Scout. Can you believe it? Vital didn’t pick a 29er to win something! HA! A few things come to mind with our winner. One, the Scout is a rad bike that does anything and it’s alumimum bike! Gasp! The details, the color scheme, and quite frankly, the polished fork crown with skinwall tires won our hearts over. We’ve learned this size medium Scout is called Pepper, and was built for a little Back to the Future feel with some 80’s vibes featuring some of the latest tech. The custom sunset fade graphics were handled by Cyclepath PDX in Portland and Shaq at Industry Nine built up the custom wheels, each with 8 silver spokes. Sensus gum-colored grips tie the room together with the Onza Gumwall Cittius 2.4 tires. The build features a personally-thought-out drivetrain with e.thirteen TRSr 9-46t cassette and Shimano XT shifting. The AbsoluteBlack Oval chainring, Hope brakes, Chromag cockpit and a PUSH ACS coil damper in the FOX 36 mean the bike is ready for some serious schralping. Incredibly, as of Dec 2, this bike was up for sale. We’re not sure of the status, but if someone scooped it up, they’re stoked. If it’s still available, the price probably just tripled. Nice work PowSlayer, what a beaut!

See More Bikes and Add Your Own to the Vital MTB Bike Check section

Leave your love and leave your hate in the comments, hit up VitalMTB.com's Bike Check section to get lost in some lusty builds and be sure to add your bike! Stay tuned for more Shreddy Awards including our choice for Mountain Bike of the Year, Component of the Year, Riding Gear of the Year and Rider of the Year. Keep up the killer builds and most importantly, put down your phone, shut off your computer, forget about the other people’s bikes and hop on yours. Get out and ride in 2019!