Hot Chili are from Schorndorf in Schwaben/Germany, pretty close to Stuttgart. In the late nineties they were among the top custom bike brands in Germany with the likes of Rotwild, Steppenwolf, Votec, Pure Power or Nicolai.
Their classic full suspension design was the X-Rage, a monopivot, that took Markus Klausmann to a second place in Nevegal and made him a top contender in the World Cup when he was about 17. He rode for Hot Chili for the most part of his career and you can be sure that his bikes were good and dialled, because he and his father are maniacal perfectionists and also some very nice people. Herr Klausmann senior always had some interesting one off parts for Markus. In his B1 days, in his Ghost days, always!
Back to Hot Chili, there also was their XC hardtail, the Zymotic, the XC vesion of the X-Rage and their fun hardtail, the Chico. A friend of mine has a Chico and it's pretty cool for a bike that is 10 years old. They even made a FS version of the Chico, which was quite unique for that period and I drooled over one. It was rare and very exclusive and the only other bike of that kind that I can think of is the FSR incarnation of the Tazer.
I guess in the last couple of years Hot Chili took a step back, but I keep seeing them at Eurobike, so they must be doing something. This is their site:
http://www.hot-chili.com/
The Warp earned good reviews when it came out and I am sure it could play along well with its fellow rivals. I remember when it was presented with a Fimoco Dragster fork.
There was also a strong connection between Hot Chili and RooX in that period and most Hot Chili bikes were presented with RooX parts.
Some pictures from the web:
(Check this factory build with STM, Tune, Ringle, Magura and Coda Magic cranks!)
I hope I was helpful...
Cheers,
Mx
