The Hummingbird was the first Neuhaus bike that caught my attention when I was searching for a hardtail MTB about five years ago. Its unique balance of speed, stability, and ride feel made it stand out. Now, Neuhaus is bringing that same design philosophy to more riders with a production version of the Hummingbird.
The New Hummingbird is the debut model in the brand's Core Collection—a line of thoughtfully designed, high-quality bikes built in small batches and made to last a lifetime. It's available in five sizes and three colors, priced at $1,199 USD, and shipping in early March 2025.
We caught up with Daniel Yang, engineer and designer at Neuhaus, to dive into the details of the fun, new Hummingbird and what this shift means for the brand. But first, watch the video...
What's changed with the new Hummingbird?
Half a degree slacker, half the price—just kidding. The New Hummingbird keeps everything riders love about our custom version—same geometry, same ride quality, same design details—but now produced in Taiwan. It's also the first bike in our Core Collection: high-quality, small-batch frames built by top manufacturers and designed to last.
How does the new Hummingbird feel?
Our top priority was preserving the ride quality our frames are known for. I traveled to Taiwan to work closely with our manufacturing partners—learning their capabilities firsthand and pushing our design as far as possible.
One key detail: we use a smaller toptube and a larger downtube, allowing the frame to twist under loads. Most of the compliance you feel comes from torsion rather than lateral flex, making the bike less fatiguing on long rides and helping it grip in off-camber sections. That said—let's be real—it's still a hardtail!
Tell us about the geo...
We joke that it's the first shorter, steeper, taller mountain bike—because in a way, it is. A 66-degree HTA is relatively steep by today's standards, especially since a hardtail sags forward when weighted. But geometry isn't just about one number. Ride feel is shaped by body position, flex, handling, and tire choice—everything working together. The result? A bike that's more nimble than a trail bike but more stable and comfortable than an XC rig. Customers tell us the Hummingbird just feels right.
Neuhaus built its name on custom frames. Why production? Why now?
In a way, Neuhaus has always made production bikes—just not in the way most people think. Traditional custom builders create whatever the customer asks for. We take the opposite approach: riders come to us for our expertise in riding, design, and engineering. Even our “custom” frames follow pre-engineered designs with small tweaks here and there. We just call them custom because it's the easiest way to explain it.
The Core Collection is a natural extension of that. It lets us offer the same high-quality frames at a lower price and with no lead time. More riders get to experience the Hummingbird, and that's what matters.
Plus, by shifting some production this way, we can shorten lead times on our custom frames and put more energy into new designs.
What was the biggest challenge in going from custom to production?
Cash flow. Nick and I aren't businessmen—we're designers, engineers, and riders. Even with small production batches, developing and manufacturing the Core Collection takes a lot of upfront investment. Neuhaus is fully bootstrapped—we don't have investors or a giant pool of money. You could say our customers are our investors, which means we have to build bikes that truly resonate with real-world riders.
Your fit system is different. What makes it better?
The bike industry does some things that make me scratch my head, and stack heights are one of them. They simply don't scale properly with saddle height—many hardtails only gain 10mm of stack per size, which doesn't make sense. Instead of using a copy-paste approach, I developed a model-based system that scales the bikes linearly, ensuring even steps as seat height increases.
With our system, stack heights grow quickly across the size range, and we offer five sizes with small, consistent steps between them. This minimizes the chances of riders falling between sizes, which is critical for both comfort and handling. Mountain bikes are highly sensitive to stem length—too short and the steering feels twitchy, too long and it becomes sluggish. By keeping the size gaps small, riders can dial in their fit without compromising handling.
How did working with ORA Engineering shape the ride?
ORA Engineering is a high-end frame manufacturer in Taiwan, best known for their titanium frames, but they also build high-end steel bikes. Their workflows and equipment are top-notch, but what really set them apart was their willingness to collaborate and experiment, which made them the right partner for the Hummingbird.
Manufacturers have to be conservative with designs—if fabrication gets too complex or a frame fails, everyone loses. More compliance usually means less strength, which is why production frames often end up being overly stiff. As both riders and framebuilders, we care deeply about ride quality, so we worked closely with ORA to strike the right balance between compliance and durability, especially in the Small and Medium sizes.
Another advantage is that ORA butts and heat-treats their tubing in-house. They've developed some unique tube shapes, including an eccentric butt that's thicker at the top and bottom. This allows us to maintain strength without needing external gussets—they're built in.
How does the production frame compare to the custom version?
Riding them back to back, it's really hard to tell. Generally, custom frames are more compliant because we can customize the tube spec to the customer. The New Hummingbird is more durable. All the tubes are heat treated and have thicker butts at the headtube junction.
When you break it down, the difference in compliance between the Custom and New Hummingbird comes down to an additional bridge on the seat stay, a larger diameter toptube on the ML size, and more internal reinforcement at the headtube.
The New Hummingbird has sliding dropouts, which is a nice feature. A few weirdos will run it singlespeed (like Nick), but for everyone else it's a tool to adjust your wheelbase.
What's a small design decision that made a big impact?
I'm gonna be real. We wanted a metal head badge on the Core Collection. But to create a nice, chunky metal badge like our custom frames, it would have cost $12 each. That's just not viable for a production product. So the New Hummingbird gets a painted badge - just one of many fun and challenging decisions when you do things at a bigger scale.
What's a detail riders might not notice but will appreciate?
We hope you won't notice your bike. Most people think a design is done when there is nothing left to add, but the best designs are done when there is nothing left to remove. The Hummingbird is a bike that disappears under you when you are riding.
What's next for Neuhaus?
The Hummingbirds are currently crossing the Pacific Ocean, and should ship in March. Once they land, it's going to be a sprint to ship orders and build completes. The Core Collection frames allow us to increase our custom titanium capacity, so expect to see some really nice bikes coming out of our shop!
We also plan to go to events (Sedona, Griduro, etc..) and do some pop-ups to meet and ride with our customers. Finally an exclusive, we are just about to sign off on our next Core Collection bike, the BigLeaf, landing in April.
