Frank “The Welder” Wadelton has been around the mountain bike industry for about as long as there’s been a mountain bike industry. He’s built one-off bikes for a list of pro racers as long as both your arms and designed and built loads of famous bikes and components. He made his name with Yeti, then set up on his own, then joined Spooky. His current gig is Sinister Bikes, which are now available in the UK through Extra.

All these bikes are frame-only deals. First up are the two hardtails. The DNA is a street/jump/4X frame that’s a clear development of one of Frank’s previous projects, the Spooky Metalhead. It’s all gussets, beefy machined chain/seatstay yokes, sliding adjustable dropoouts (with peg mounts), detangler-compatible head tube, all that stuff. It’s designed around a 4in travel fork but will take up to 7. A DNA will set you back £549.

The Ridge is Sinister’s technical singletrack bike. It’s a hardtail for a 6in travel fork and comes with a 1.5in headtube for extra burl. There’s a cool-looking monostay/forged yoke rear end, ISCG mounts and room for 2.7in tyres. It’s £549.99 too.

Then there’s three full-suspension frames. Top of the travel tree is the R9 DH race frame, offering up 9in of travel from a linkage rear end. That one’s a penny under two grand. Finally Sinister has two variants of the Splinter, both at £1,599 and both using a “Low Mass Centralization” suspension design with a single-pivot swingarm driving the shock via a strut and linkage. The MX frame has 6in of travel, 1.5in headtube, Swinger coil shock and rear 12mm through-axle. The ER (Extended Range) has 4in of travel, a conventional headtube and a Swinger air shock.

They’re all good-looking frames in characteristically industrial FTW style. See more of them at www.sinisterbikes.com.