The strange story of the On One Hello Dave
On a not-very-special winter weekday, I got a message from my friend Harvey with a link. It was a Facebook Marketplace listing for an extra-large petrol-green bike frame called the Hello Dave by a company named On-One. Not only had I never heard of the Hello Dave, I’d never heard of On-One.
A quick Google later and I’d fallen down the rabbit hole. First, I discovered that the Hello Dave is a crazy bike, a 29er that takes long, low and slack geometry to the extreme. Second, I found that On-One has a loyal cult following, known for making quirky but affordable bikes that punch well above their price tag. And third, I learned that the Hello Dave, along with another model called the TikTik, has a fascinating and slightly controversial backstory.
A Bit of History
After wading through old Singletrack and Pinkbike forum threads, this is what I managed to piece together.
The Hello Dave hasn’t always been known by that name.
Once upon a time, two friends, Jordan and Tim, founded a small company called Sick Bicycle Co. They started out selling merch, but soon decided they wanted to make the kind of bikes they actually wanted to ride. They developed a few prototypes, including the Shrike and the Sesh. The Shrike was a 29er, while the Sesh was built around 27.5" wheels.
To bring these bikes to life, Sick Bicycle Co. launched a pre-sale campaign: customers would pay upfront, and that money would fund the production costs. By the sounds of it, the pre-sales went well, and plenty of people ordered frames.
Jordan and Tim then needed a manufacturer. They spoke to Brant from Planet X (the company behind On-One), who put them in touch with a frame builder in Taiwan named Calvin, someone Planet X had worked with before.
And this is where things get murky.
Calvin built the frames, but for reasons that aren’t entirely clear, he was never paid. Left out of pocket, he contacted Brant at Planet X, hoping to recover some of the costs. Planet X stepped in, bought the unpaid-for frames, and decided to release them under the On-One brand. The Shrike was reborn as the Hello Dave, and the Sesh became the TikTik. Both names nods to Papa Lazarou from The League of Gentlemen.
The Hello Dave is still in production today, but the TikTik has become something of a cult unicorn. Hard to find and steeped in myth.
Harvey’s Hello Dave
Harvey’s version of the Hello Dave is finished in Seafoam Green. I don’t think it’s one of the original Sick Bicycle frames; more likely, it’s from the second production run that had a few tweaks to the design. That’s based on one big clue — the tiny 160mm rear rotor mount. It’s mounted between the chainstay and seatstay, which makes fitting a bigger disc a nightmare.
We tried three different offset Hope disc-brake spacers before we finally got a 180mm to fit. A 200mm rotor? No chance.
The Build
For this build, Harvey went all out:
- Deore XT cranks – 175mm with 32T chainring
- Deore XT cassette – 12-speed 10–51
- Deore XT brakes
- Deore XT 180mm discs
- Deore XT rear derailleur
- Deore XT 12-speed shifter
- Cane Creek Forty headset
- RockShox Domain 160mm forks
- Burgtec Ride High 38s handlebars
- Burgtec Enduro Mk3 stem
- PNW Loam grips
- Crankbrothers Stamp 1 V2 pedals
- OneUp dropper post
- Ergon SM Enduro Men saddle
- Hunt Trail Wide v2 wheelset
- Schwalbe Hans Dampf (rear)
- Schwalbe Magic Mary (front)
Closing Thoughts
It’s mad to think that a messy mix of unpaid invoices, pre-orders, and internet drama ended up spawning one of the most distinctive hardtails ever made.
And now, years later, Harvey’s seafoam-green Hello Dave — the spiritual descendant of the Shrike — is back where it belongs: on the trails, being ridden hard.