Titus Fireline Ti 29 Evo..

And finally ready to ride.

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Untitled[/url] by danthomassw13[/url], on Flickr[/img]

I wasn’t happy with the tyre clearance from the cable with a conventional mech, so I got the Direct Mount Clamp from On-One and went full length outer cable to a Direct mount front mech.

Only a road test so far – first ride tonight!!

Awesome work you’ll love it!

Well, first ride done!! Possibly the wettest, muddiest, boggiest ride I’ve ever had, but the bike performed admirably!! Plenty of traction, front end tracked as well as could be hoped for in the conditions, fork worked really nicely.

It is my first 29er, and my first Ti bike, and its a combo that I like!! It really felt like a half way house between a HT and a FS, with the Ti frame taking the edge off the rear end bumps.

No mud clearance issues at all, although its so wet out there, I expect it to be more of an issue as the ground dries out a little (If it ever does!!);.

Just got one after the recent discounts. Seat tube seems a little baggy with the post knocking slightly unless clamp cranked tight. I seem to remember this being mention before :-S

Sugnificant issue or potential fixes?

It’s with an SDG I beam post.

good looking bike Dan, ride it hard

Mine’s built up, I’ve got a few rides in and I’m super happy.

No fit or quality issues, frame was as good as I could have hoped for.

Full review here

The baggy seat tubes were only supposed to be an issue on the earlier batch, so I’d be returning it. Mine is nice and tight on 2 different seatposts.

You are using a 30.6 post???????

Mine’s built up, I’ve got a few rides in and I’m super happy.

Thanks for the write up, I’m a medium Yelli rider too.

Do you not notice the slightly longer chainstays of the Fireline? That’s my major concern in moving away from the Yelli.

Im pretty sure the only reason the Yelli has longer chain stays is the more relaxed seat tube, and the fact that the bb is behind the seat tube/downtube junction.

Given the tight clearance on the Fireline, the actual distance from the bb to rear axle is as short as you can get. It manuals easily, and is very manoeuvrable.

Yeah maybe, not all measurements are like for like.

Yelli, Honzo, Zealous Division etc all have significantly shorter chain stays than the Fireline. Offset (Yelli) Curved (Honzo) and split (Division) seat tube accommodates the short stays.
Fireline is tight for clearance maybe, but short – no.

depends how they’re measured.

some companies just measure the length of the chainstay.

some companies measure the horizontal distance between the BB and the rear axle, and then state this as the ‘chainstay length’ – it’s cheating a little, and it makes a frame sound more fashionable.

the titus is measured the honest way, 17.1″/434mm is pretty bloody short.

of course bikes are available with shorter chainstays, but crossing the fireline off your list for it’s ‘long chainstays’ is a bit daft.

some companies measure the horizontal distance between the BB and the rear axle, and then state this as the ‘chainstay length’ – it’s cheating a little, and it makes a frame sound more fashionable.

but with regards to handling it’s probably the dimension that matters, i.e. “effective chainstay” rather than “actual chain stay”.

Yelli is quoted as 424 “effective”, Fireline is 434mm “actual” so would be a few mm less effective, I’ve forgotten the sin/cosin maths I learnt at school to work it out.

But I suppose I could just measure my Yelli! So I did that, I’d agree with the 424mm effective and maybe 427mm actual, give or take a mm or 2.

Honzo 415mm actual

Division 419m actual

Looks like Yelli figures may be horizontal (I’ll measure my mate’s…)

Genesis High Latitude and Fortitude have 435mm actual c/stay length.

All the above have significantly lower BB’s too.

Fireline is a but ho-hum. tall BB, tall headtube, short front centres (relative to all the above). For something that wants to be seen as new school, seems to me it’s very much not.

Added to that the questionable build quality and the Planet X factor – it’s never going to be on my shopping list.

Looks like Yelli figures may be horizontal (I’ll measure my mate’s…)

Yes http://canfieldbrothers.com/frames/yelli-screamy

No need I measured mine, see ^^, 120mm fork unweighted.

dantsw13, what front mud guard is that? Does it work OK on the manitou tower, please?

Cheeky Monkey – Is your post baggy when near its max mark, ie with the end of the post ~100mm into the frame? If so, thats what all three of my frames have been like, though the current one (from this latest batch) is better than the pervious two. You’ll find (or I did) that if you have more post in the frame it stops being baggy (basically the seat tube has an hourglass internal shape due to the welding). I “solved” the issue by buying a 450mm long post so I get a good 6inch insertion. Be careful if you just crank up the seat clamp or shim the post. I did that on frame number 1 and cracked the seat tube at the end of the post.

You are using a 31.6mm post though, right?

Canefrog – its a Muckynutz Bender FenderXL. Its installed backwards due to the Rear arch on the Manitou. It has at least 10mm clearance all round on the Manitou with a Smorgasbord tyre, which is quite a big 2.25. I think it would handle a 2.35 fine, which is pretty good, considering the arch on the Tower Pro isn’t huge.

If anybody needs a ride on an 18″ Fireline to have a feel for it, Im in East Sussex, but get about a bit in the SE.

Thanks for the write up, I’m a medium Yelli rider too.

Do you not notice the slightly longer chainstays of the Fireline? That’s my major concern in moving away from the Yelli.

Overall- I find the fireline to wheelie/manual easier than the Yelli, but not as easy as the Honzo.

Don’t pay attention to the whingers that get all bent out of shape on chainstay length. Here is the truth:

The fireline has a “normal” (i.e. slacker) effective seat tube angle compared to the yelli/Honzo. If the fireline chainstays are long, why is the seat tube so close to the rear tire? It’s pretty obvious these chainstays are as short as you can get without making a compromise somewhere else.

In terms of what makes a bike easy to manual/wheelie/slash corners, chainstay length is not the only factor. The fireline has a relatively short wheelbase, slacker seat tube and a tall head tube, things which help make it easy to get the front end up or snap out of corners.

Having owned all three, the FIreline feels in between the Honzo and the Yelli, which is what I was hoping for. The Honzo was super playful, quick and easy to manual but lacked stability on fast rocky trails. I liked the Yelli better, but the fireline is little easier to manual for me with the shorter reach and slacker seat angle. Ride quality and weight wise the Fireline is the best of the three. If you like the medium Yelli the 18″ Fireline will feel very similar. Lighter, more compliant, a bit shorter reach when out of the saddle, and a bit less standover.

On my Honzo, I had moved the sliding drop-outs back to 16.75″/425mm to add some stability on fast rocky trails. Helped, but still the stiff back worked against the bike in these conditions. IMO 425-430mm is the sweet spot- look at the chromag and ROS9- both in this range along wiht the fireline.

Perfect? Not quite for me- only because I would prefer a 17″ size option. And 142×12 drop-outs. But I am very happy with this frame.

as for the seat tube, I’ve fit both a 31.6 syncros and a 30.9 Kindshock i950, with a problem solvers shim. Both fit perfectly with no slop regardless of insertion depth.

^^ thanks for the detailed write up and thoughts.

Dan – yes please am in ‘Surrey Hills’.

A couple of things – re c/stays, the chain stay length on it’s own is only one factor, but combined with other factors like BB drop, reach, stack and FC length it tells a story.

The tyre on a Fireline is close to the seat tube because it’s about as short as one can reasonably go without either having a crazy steep ST angle, or manipulating the seat tube (Fortitude), curving the seat tube (Honzo, Buzzard, High Latitude) or splitting it (Division). It’s reasonably short, like the Genesis bikes, but not as short as the others. I’m not getting hung up on that one dimension – simply clarifying something.

What makes the Fireline easier to manual isn’t shorter chain stays, but rather a combination of higher BB, higher hand position and shorter reach (for similar frame sizes). ST angle has no effect as you’re not seated when manualing. Short reach yes, slack ST – no.

Email – your Honzo was a 16″ right? FL is an 18″? Stability due to overall wheelbase rather than anything else.

Sounds like you’re between sizes on a Honzo, and a 17″ FL might get skitty again due to a shorter wheelbase.

Hey sillyoldman, right on….couple of thoughts

ST angle has no effect as you’re not seated when manualing. Short reach yes, slack ST – no.

Strictly for manualing down the street, sure. But situations like a wheelie drop in the middle of a flattish pedaly technical trail…wheelie-drops off flat wood….or trying to keep the front end down on a steep climb… basically any situation where you’re trying to get the front end up/ keep it down while seated- in those situations seat angle makes just as much difference as chainstay length in the “wheelie-ability”- so I always consider it.

Email – your Honzo was a 16″ right? FL is an 18″? Stability due to overall wheelbase rather than anything else.
Sounds like you’re between sizes on a Honzo, and a 17″ FL might get skitty again due to a shorter wheelbase.

Fitwise, yes I had a 16” Honzo and a medium yelli screamy. I agree the short wheelbase was largely what didn’t work for me on the 16” Honzo (and that’s why I didn’t buy a 16” Fireline). The interesting thing is comparing the top tube and reach numbers between all these frames- the fireline has a very short reach (given similar top tube lengths) compared to the Honzo/Yelli. In fact, the 20” Fireline has similar reach to the 16” Honzo- even though the top tube lengths are consistently similar at the same sizes! When I held the 18” Fireline up against my small honzo frame, the bottom of the head tube and drop-outs actually lined up pretty close… but the BB on the fireline was further forward and the slacker seat tube which makes the ETT longer. This was with the Honzo drop-outs slid back to 16.75” which helped tame the high-speed nervousness. The fireline is also a hair slacker with the same fork.

I saw Brant mention a custom fireline option. The wheelbase/reach/TT of the 18”, but with a 17” seat tube and shorter head tube (like the 16”) would be ideal for me. But the 18” fits & handles great with flat bars and no spacers.

Hi guys,
I am building my titus now. I have problem with my front mech, which I can not mount. Seems not enough clearance.
Now I need to buy a more compact front mech. I am looking at this one:

front mech

It looks more compact according to mine. Takes less space from the tyre clearance. I have following 2 questions:

1. Do you know if this mech will work fine with 2.1, 2.2,5 rear tyre on titus 20″ ?
2. Do you know if it is compatible with sram 2×10 front shifter

Thanks in advance.

Macleod, look at my pic at the top of the page – I recommend getting a Direct Mount Front Mech, with a DM adapter from On-One. You can then run Full Outer Cable to the front mech, without using the cable guide on the seat tube.

You can also use a hacksaw to remove the bottom pull arm from the mech, as per the instructions earlier in this thread.

I’m very happy with this setup, with loads of clearance using a 2.25 smorgasbord.

I don’t think SRAM shifters are supposed to be compatible with Shimano mechs, but they may work. Front shifters are widely available in the classifieds from 1×10 convertees.

[/url] Untitled[/url] by danthomassw13[/url], on Flickr[/img]

Covered in cr@p but not clogged up at all.

I can not see much from the system, because of the dirt. In all cases it was a good ride. 🙂

Is it necessary to be adaptor from on-one ?

Maybe this one can do the job too:

adaptor

How big is your tire on the last photo ?

No the one in the link is a braze on adapter, not Direct Mount.

My setup is the one used by Rorschach on P9 of this thread, except he used the Problemsolvers adapter which is £35, and I used the O-O one which is £9.99, but almost identical.

The tyre was a 2.25 smorgasbord, which is fairly meaty.

If I get a chance to clean it after the ride tomorrow, ill take a piccy.

On one clamp

The on-one clamp is really nice, but with the 20 pounds delivery to my country/city – Bulgaria/Sofia it will come to the price of a new mech hanger. And I was not clever enough to purchase one clamp with the frame. 🙁
I will search tomorrow for a direct mount adaptor in the local shops here. They should have some. I also have a direct mount front mech. So I need only the correct adaptor.

Thanks for the info.

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Untitled[/url] by danthomassw13[/url], on Flickr[/img]

For me, the biggest issue was the closeness of the cable from the seat tube cable stop to the front mech, so the ability to run full outer was the key.

Thanks for pic. I did not succeed to find such adaptor here. I want to check one more shop tommorrow ( today it is not working, because it is Sunday ). And if they do not have, I will purchase this clamp too.

For me, the biggest issue was the closeness of the cable from the seat tube cable stop to the front mech, so the ability to run full outer was the key.

Why what is the problem with that ?
Ah… You mean that the tire will rubber into the cable ?

Well, I’m on my second frame already.

Dropped my “baggy” seat tube’d one in on Friday and Lee in the workshop checked it and agreed the 2mm oversize was out of tolerance. Replacement frame will be in the post any day.

No hassle or troubles dealing with On One and changed without quibble. Fingers crossed for secondtime lucky 😎

I already have the bike built and ready to ride. I just need to put my direct mount front mech, but I am waiting for the adaptor mech clamp to arrive from on-one stores. I also noticed that maybe the seat tube is oversized, but I do not have any problems with that. I am using a thomson seatclamp with bolt. So I tighten the bolt and everything is fine for me. Maybe there will be a problem with qr seatclamps. It will be harder to tighten them, but I prefer seatclamps with bolts, so I am completely ok with the seattube. The bike is very nice and very comfortable. I am riding 1×10 now ( well until my clamp arrives so I can put my front mech ). I do not like 1×10. Too few gears for me. 🙂

Has anyone successfully installed the FSA Orbit E 1.5 lower headset as mentioned by JaIIII on page 12 of this thread.

I have the 20″ with the massive head tube and want to fit some 140mm tapered forks without raising the front end any higher, so that 15mm lower cup has to go. At 120mm with flat bars slammed it is as high as if not higher than Is ideal already.

It appears it is only available in the states, and the UK importers Windwave seem confused that such a headset even exists or is possible.

Any other options? this appears to be the only headset of it’s type.

Think I looked into it but the catch is the loose ball bearings (depending on how you feel about them).

Don’t think they were silly pricey so maybe just buy direct from the states and ship over.

Be interesting to see how they compare.