Viewing 29 posts - 1 through 29 (of 29 total)
  • Titus FTM Carbon build completed
  • shedfull
    Free Member

    I just built this for my girlfriend

    Her last bike was a Rockhopper that had been steadily upgraded over the last year or so and this became the donor bike for much of the parts. The drivetrain is mostly 9 speed XT with a SRAM PG980 cassette, brakes are Avid Elixir 5 and the rest is a mixture of Easton, FSA and Specialized. The fork is a 1 1/8″ steerered Revelation U-Turn Dual Air so there was a bit of a search for a Cane Creek IS52 reducer lower headset, which ended up coming from Germany. The wheels are DT 445D on Specialized Stout thru bolt front/DT 370 rear hubs. They’re going to be upgraded or re-rimmed at some point.

    The build was mostly straight forward apart from the rear brake, which has to be emptied and split to run the hose through the frame. There are a couple of oddities with the frame – it’s rear brake hose routing was clearly designed to put the lever on the right bar and the seat collar is a non-QR thing that’s sculpted into the carbon. Replacing the collar with a QR one leaves a wedge of unfinished carbon on view but it suggests the frame was designed to run a gravity dropper post.

    She’s ridden it for the first time today and loves it. I followed her for some of the ride just to see her taking different lines where there were tree roots and rocks just to test her new bouncy bike.

    ChunkyMTB
    Free Member

    Crikey, she must be tall.

    shedfull
    Free Member

    😀 She’s 5’9″ but the pic was taken after I’d tested it and before she adjusted the seat down to her height.

    ChunkyMTB
    Free Member

    Oh ok. Still looks a huge frame though! At least a large? Does she have standover clearance?

    shedfull
    Free Member

    It’s a large frame but it fits her well. She’s 3″ shorter than me but that’s in upper body – she has the same inside leg. The reach to the bars is fine, though. If anything, it fits her better than the Rockhopper, which was also a Large.

    I’m not sure the pic hasn’t been squashed ever so slightly horizontally, though. It seems to look slightly better when I right click and go View Image.

    bol
    Full Member

    That’s a good looking bike.

    ditch_jockey
    Full Member

    Gorgeous looking bike!

    If you don’t mind me asking, how heavy are you? I really fancy one of these, but I found my wife’s Titus a bit bobby at the back in comparison to my 5 Spot and I reckoned it was probably because I’m fairly heavy at around 16st.

    shedfull
    Free Member

    I’m 11.5st, she’s just over 10, I think. I’ve not ridden it, though…….yet. I watched her ride and with 25% static sag set up on the rear shock, there was no visible bob in any of the gate settings.

    stumpy_m4
    Free Member

    nice bike but Looks a very big frame for someone only 5`9 .. ?

    smell_it
    Free Member

    Nice bike, hope she enjoys it. I’ve been thinking about picking one of these up, but at just over 5’9 myself I was going to go for a medium, if it’s not to personal, what’s your gr’s inside leg measurement?

    shedfull
    Free Member

    She’s a 32″ inside leg. Looking at the bike just now, she’s hadly moved the seat down at all since that pic.

    simonm
    Free Member

    very nice, can’t wait to get mine built up.

    superdale
    Free Member

    Looks good. Got mine built yesterday thanks to Hope sending me the parts to reduce my hoses from oversize back to 5mm (otherwise they wont run through the frame holes with the rear mech cable!) so big thanks to Hope. However still having some front mech issues that need to be sorted tonight – I wish it had direct mounts.
    How is the shifting I was told it had to be fitted with a shadow rear mech only. Also the larger seatpost clamp is that not because the carbon needs a larger clamp surface area on your post?
    I found one of the rear mech hanger screws caught on the skewer face as it was too long. Bad positioning I just backed it off by 1mm but may trim it later – anyone else find this?
    Mines a large frame I am 6ft with 34″ leg the fit is fine running a 90mm stem.

    gixerator
    Free Member

    Bike looks great, Im still awaiting mine. Can you take the allen bolt out of the seatpost collar and fit a qr through it? (using the original collar)

    And just to confirm, are you saying you can’t use braided hoses on the rear?

    Sodajim
    Full Member

    Interesting comments about the sizing but it is to horses for courses.

    I haven’t got round to building mine yet but I did stick the fork, saddle, stem bars and wheels in friday night to sling a leg over it.

    5.10″ 32″ inside leg on a medium felt fine for me, with a 70mm stem and in line post. At 23.25″ it’s got the same top tube length as my soda.

    Can’t comment without actually riding it but 25% sag in the shock it seems pretty firm even with the gate fully open. Seems to be a fair bit of compression damping dialled in to the custom tune so I don’t think its going to bob too badly but I stand to be corrected!

    shedfull
    Free Member

    Superdale, I had a bitch of a time getting the front mech right. I’m still not sure I’m happy with it. It was a new mech with the alignment sticker on it so should’ve been a breeze but it still sometimes doesn’t drop to the granny ring.

    Where did you read that it needed a shadow rear mech? I ask because the standard mech fouls the rear suspension pivot so I ordered a shadow one last night (I have a build coming up that’ll use the standard XT mech). It didn’t affect shifting, as far as I could tell, and I spent a good while riding behind her watching gear changes and checking all was good. Titus’s US site lists X9 and X0 as equipment options so they seem to have no problem with SRAM stuff.

    gixerator, the seat collar is a fairly big thing that doesn’t look able to accept a QR from another collar.

    superdale
    Free Member

    Gixerator – thats possible but I would assume Titus have spec’d that collar for a reason, and adapting it ‘could’ invalidate your warranty should the carbon crack as a result. Personally moving my seatpost up & down inside a carbon tube is not something I plan on doing during rides, if needed I will buy a Reverb.
    Yes if your braided hoses are larger than 5mm, which in my experience if coated they are, or you are running older Hope 6mm cables as I was, you will really struggle to get both cables through. The hole layout is setup for rear brake lever on the RHS (hole on the LHS frame) but if you run US setup as me its fine, otherwise protect the headtube or it will rub badly.

    shedfull
    Free Member

    I found the link but it’s to a Titus US shop page that’s broken at the moment. However, I can read enough from the Google search results to find out that Titus know that only SRAM and Shimano shadow mechs fit but Shimano’s non-shadow mechs are incompatible. But this doesn’t appear on On-One’s website.

    I really don’t understand how you buy a US company, start selling its frames in the UK and manage not to have any build requirements on your website until a week or two before they’re shipped, miss entirely the need for weird headset sizes and overlook the need to be specific about rear mech requirements. It doesn’t ooze quality, does it?

    That said, the frame is beautiful and everything is carbon.

    wwaswas
    Full Member

    your lawn’s a bit of a mess and your border’s a disgrace.

    red bottle cage is a bit of a miss too – given the frame restrictions one of those ‘side entry’ ones might be better?

    gixerator
    Free Member

    I have a XO Mid cage ready to fit, Are you saying that it won’t work?

    superdale
    Free Member

    Shedfull – yes it was only on the US shop link I noticed a shimano shadow had to be spec’d. Gixerator you should be fine with Sram as they are listed on the Titus build spec sheets – I only stuck with shimano as didnt want to buy new shifters.
    I think On-One have just been overwhelmed and to be fair they now seem to have the headsets info up, and when I have needed to call them have been helpful. I would however say emailing Titus US has been a very pleasurable experience, very helpful & quick to respond despite the recent unrest and worries no doubt. This is our third Titus & I can safely say have only ever had fantastic service and experience from the frames and staff involved with them.

    shedfull
    Free Member

    your lawn’s a bit of a mess and your border’s a disgrace.

    Guilty as charged. It’s “managed” for wildlife.

    red bottle cage is a bit of a miss too – given the frame restrictions one of those ‘side entry’ ones might be better?

    I’ve got a side loading cage on order but we were dying to get out and ride.

    ewanscot
    Free Member

    Hi

    Do you know if there is sufficent space in the cable run for the front mech to fit another cable, say for a Revelation Reverb dropper seatpost?

    superdale
    Free Member

    Ewan – the hole on the LHS of the frame is designed for the rear brake and rear mech cable, so is larger. The hole on the RHS is a smaller entry hole so you will only be able to get the front mech cable through.
    I suppose you could run a 1×10 and use the hole for a dropper cable instead though???
    Seems a shame to ruin the clean lines with a dropper cable – hopefully Titus will make the hole larger on the new frames to allow for this as many people are now running dropper posts.

    larrythelathe
    Free Member

    did you put the cables in the lower or higher gap on the rear shock link?

    stuartie_c
    Free Member

    Tip for running cables/hoses through a Titus swing link:

    Use two zip ties so that cable rub under compression is kept to a minimum and make sure you carefully apply frame tape to any cable contact areas. This is a 2006 Motolite which is still in remarkably good cosmetic condition as a result.


    R1016977 by stuartie_c, on Flickr

    (Sorry for crap pic, and yes, it needs cleaning…)

    stuartie_c
    Free Member

    Unless, of course, the cable routing is entirely different with the FTM frames…

    superdale
    Free Member

    Larry the cables should go in the lower gap of the link, which is wider, and on full compression allows a bit more space for them to move without rubbing link or shock. I checked and it shows this also on the Titus website photos.
    After this weekend I have also now helitaped the inside edge of the seatstay which the chain was catching / bouncing against and around the BB as if the chain comes of it is very tight gap, in fact I am fitting a chain catcher to save the carbon BB rub eventuality.
    Also I would suggest checking on full shock compression the chainstay is clear of the front mech cage as it gets quite close.
    Very happy with mine balance is great handles the downs nicely and weight saving makes a big difference. Amazed how differently a carbon bike rides after years of alu bikes.

    gixerator
    Free Member

    Mine is in the top gap, I will see what happens as working ok at the moment.

    http://www.singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/another-finished-titus-ftm-carbon

Viewing 29 posts - 1 through 29 (of 29 total)

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