[Closed] Custom Gravel Bike - Ti, steel or XCR

Planet X Tempest
If you can get them to ever respond on online chat

Would love any feedback on how Ti, Steel or XCR compare ride wise for gravel use

Be surprised if you could notice the difference when riding on what I am guessing will be a 40c ish tyre and a medium pressure. I would go for TI as I like the look of it and it is lighter than steel.

As nice as the Enigma undoubtedly is, for the price of an Enigma frameset you could have a complete Planet X Tempest, and still have a bit of wiggle room for upgrades. Admittedly, the Fulcrum 900's and Panaracer Comets are a weighty combo, and I've improved my Ultegra spec bike by swapping in a set of Crosslight HD's I already had, that were already running WTB Cross Bosses. Wheels aside though, the specs are generally pretty good.

You haven't mentioned budget, but I don't think custom carbon would really have the "ah wow" factor that you'd want say 2 years after said big birthday. Custom steel or Ti could be worth looking at, but also don't discount the number of Ti options out there, including (in roughly price order):
- Planet X
- Ribble CGR Ti (I have)
- Reilly Gradient
- Enigma Escape
- Mason Bokeh Ti (really wanted)
- J. Laverack (really REALLY want).
IIRC, the Ribble's about £2k, and the Laverack about £4k in basic form. The Laverack also offers customisation options, I think.

Weight is of course a consideration; the Ribble comes in about 10kg as built, but it's fairly easy to get it to 9kg with wheels, tyres and seatpost upgrades. Carbon would probably be about 9kg and under 8kg would be fairly achievable - and you have your choice of bikes from Specialized, Cannondale, Canyon etc etc

Thanks for the thoughts. I would be going for a frame and building it up myself or with the help of my LBS, don't really want to do the complete bike and end up ditching components not to my taste. I also tend to shy away from online companies unless there is some way to have face to face discussions with people, well at least for a significant purchase like a new bike.

Yes, get something from Enigma, or similarly established builder.

There's obviously a big market for Ti all round frames, and people seem to be happy to pay a premium for an overweight (compared to a good fabricator such as Moots), average quality frame built in the far east, just because it's made from titanium. Heck, I've done it myself (although I paid second hand prices for it), but sold it on as it wasn't all that and compared to an old Merlin I used to own, it lacked the Ti feel (or perhaps it was the fatter tyres aluded to above).

I would think titanium would be more durable than steel in one sense, as although not as strong, alot of these new steels (such as XCR) have very thin walls and I'm not sure how they'd cope with rock strikes etc.

I went through this a few years back with my roadbike - ended up with a steel Enigma in the end, funnily enough. Like you, I tend to keep stuff a good while (although my C16 got retired a looong time ago!)

First thing is to try lots of different bikes to refine down what you do and don't want. I was expecting to want a Ti bike, having loved my original Cotic Soda, but I couldn't find one that felt right; similarly the carbon ones seemed to be either racy and harsh as **** or comfortable but handled like an oil tanker. When I tried the Enigma, I knew it was just *right*, almost before I was out the carpark. Especially important in your case, if you're switching from an MTB shaped setup to a dropbar one, it may well need to some time and effort to sort out what works for you (or even IF dropbar works for you!).

Bearing in mind you're planning on keeping it for a long time, I'd want to know that if I had a problem (or even just wanted modifications) some time in the future, that the manufacturer would stand by their product - not just a "2 years and you're on your own" effort. This may well discount some of the more box-shifty style co's. Ti especially seems to be a little bit flaky when it comes to everlastingness - a good one will outlast you; one that wasn't put together quite as well may well crack after not so long, and is then a pig to repair.

XCR I've not tried, but it's generally pigging expensive and a bit heavier than Ti, and as above - wall thicknesses are miniscule, so they can dent easily. Sure, you might not be abusing it like you would an MTB, but a gravel bike still encounters a few rocks.

I had similar thoughts for a significant birthday, I was very tempted by something from Burls Titanium but the price crept up trying to build something to modern standards (their base prices are 1 1/8" headtube, Quick Releases, IS brake mounts). In the end I got a Titus Goldrush (Planet-X's bike with a remarkable resemblance to a Sonder Camino Ti, but with through axles and flat mount brakes), which I'm very pleased with. Despite it not having the promised stealth dropper routing.

Is a Ti bike worth it? That depends on your perspective, I love the ride of this, but I may well have been equally happy on a similar spec steel bike. However I'd always had a hankering for a ti bike. At least it won't rust, though the stories of cracked titanium frames do worry me a bit.

ETA: I'm 6' of pretty standard proportions, so a custom frame for the sake of a few braze ons is probably somewhat less justified than someone who's struggled to fit off-the-peg bikes in the past.

when checking your established builder make sure the frame is made by them and not just shipped in and finished by them, if that's important to you
the quality of a far-east Ti frame is more than equal to anything hand-made anywhere else (they will all be hand-made), for a price, the era and perception of the cheap low-quality eastern factory frame has long gone, the construction there can be very good, which is why some boutique brands use them for certain models

like most bike frames the material they're made from matters less, just that they use that material well and done so will exhibit their trademark feel, however the geometry and handling are more important and you can get very very good Ti, steel, alloy and carbon gravel bikes
if you're planning on using it for bikepacking adventures then material matters a little less again for 'feel' and a strong and stable platform for weighty bags is more desirable over a long day where you don't want a nervous and/or flexy machine

buy the one that gives you the tingle

I'd say Ti - possibly as I'm waiting for a quote from Jim at Enigma for a weird road bike build on an Etape…..

I've no idea how they ride as they're well beyond my budget, but it might be worth looking at Singular; they're currently doing titanium Kites & Gryphons in small batches.

[url= http://www.singularcycles.com/titanium/ ]http://www.singularcycles.com/titanium/[/url]

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The Singular looks nice, but I'm short in the leg and long in the body and it looks a bit leggy in the seat tube. I have a carbon road bike so I'm a happy that drops is the way to go for this one, but find it a bit limiting in terms of where I can take it.

I think Rourke will build a 953 gravel frame if you ask. The road bikes are amazing and I wouldn't worry too much about the thin walls unless riding heavily laden. I personally prefer the very thin tube profiles of stainless over the slightly oversized titanium tubes.
Having said that Enigma paint jobs are amazing, if you want special a painted frame with raw or polished sections would be the best bet. With the exception of the Bokeh I've never thought that bare titanium frames look special.

I have a Rourke 953 road frame and I’ve also a Burls ti frame. I would not have, nor recommend the latter.
The Rourke rides superbly, far better, and that’s on the same kit the Burls had.
The staff at Rourke were a pleasure to deal with too.
At some point in the future I would like to get a CX race frame built by Rourke in either 853 or 953.

I have a ti Reilly Gradient and love it, tried that and Mason Bokeh.

One thing to consider as you seem to want to use it for some bikepacking / touring, is how much you'll shed a tear when you get a custom paint job and bags rub? It is why i went for ti over Bokeh, i knew i could just polish the ti back up.

As far aa I know, the Singulars are done in small batches, so mods to the frame geometry don't add much to the cost. Actually, I think the idea is that they're semi-custom runs anyway. Might be a good way to do it. Sart with a good design, slight tweaks for your needs. Certainly worth exploring.

my Kite was customised with more stack to get rid of 15mm of headset spacers compared to my road bike

I've got a Burls custom titanium road/gravel bike and so has my wife and they're lovely, the geometry and sizing was tweaked to match what we wanted and the quality is really good. I'd definitely recommend them.