ROCK LOBSTER TEAM TITANIUM
Stateside boutique builder’s UK-specific titanium frame gets a complete makeover for 2010
INTRO
Most bikes have a fairly straightforward relationship with the brand that adorns their tubes. If it says ‘brand X’ on the decals, it’ll be someone at ‘brand X’ who designed it and, in the case of really small one-man-band set-ups, it might even be the owner of ‘brand X’ who built it.
It’s not quite so simple with Rock Lobster. Paul Sadoff, the man behind the Santa Cruz, California-based brand, only puts his signature on frames that have felt the heat of his welding torch. Look as hard as you like on the Rock Lobster Team Titanium - there’s no Sadoff signature to be found. So what gives?
Lancashire-based mail order shop Merlin Cycles has exclusive European distribution rights for Rock Lobster, that’s what. And, aside from being able to order you one of Mr Sadoff’s exquisite hand welded, built-to-order creations, it also has a unique licensing deal. The Californian master builder has designed a unique series of Rock Lobster frames for Merlin, renowned bicycle manufacturer Kinesis has translated the drawings into welded pipework, and hey presto - a Rock Lobster frame can be yours for the price of an ordinary production bike.
The cynical might argue that this process makes the Merlin-sourced Lobsters just another production bike. But in the case of the Team Titanium, it’s worth taking a closer look. In 2010 guise this understated hardtail offers a double-butted titanium frameset with SLX stop-and-go bits and a RockShox Recon SL fork for a relatively wallet-friendly £1650. Compared with some of the other ti hardtails on the market, that makes the Rock Lobster’s components effectively free…
THE FACTS
Before we get to the specifics, a brief history lesson. Titanium hardtails went through a period of frenzied development in the ’90s, when the material’s aerospace credentials, corrosion resistance and incredible strength-to-weight ratio earned it plenty of deep-pocketed fans. The cost of the raw material - and of working with it - eventually consigned titanium to a small group of specialist builders, whilst aluminium’s relatively low cost and easy malleability put it at the top of the heap for most bike manufacturers.
But titanium’s advantages - including a lively-but-forgiving ride feel - never went away. It remains a sought-after alternative for riders looking for a long-term bike that’ll shrug off the ravages of multiple British winters, will never need painting and is highly unlikely to ever fall apart.
Looked at from this point of view, the Rock Lobster Team Titanium makes eminent sense. The new-for-2010 double-butted main tubes have shaved some weight (although Merlin Cycles was unable to tell us how much, and we don’t have a pre-2010 frame with which to compare it) and lost their quirky trapezoidal profile in favour of a slimmed-down, traditional round cross-section.
The wishbone rear end gives enough clearance for a 2.3in tyre, while curvy stays ensure that even heels-inward pedallers won’t clout their ankles. A surprisingly beefy disc mount brace and subtle ovalising of the down tube at the head tube junction are the only concessions to titanium’s tendency to flex under load, though we’re told the new frame’s butting helps in this department too. Our only niggle - and it’s a minor one - is that, given the bike’s UK leanings, it’d be nice to see a pair of mudguard bosses under the down tube.
There’s not much to say about Shimano’s SLX kit other than it works brilliantly and sets the benchmark for performance and value. Our test bike came with a RockShox Reba fork sporting 100mm of smooth, air-sprung travel, but production bikes will be fitted with the coil-sprung 100mm Recon SL. The frame really warrants a decent air fork, but as coil units go the Recon’s a good ’un.
THE FEEL
Much has been made of titanium’s ride ‘feel’, and yet it’s one of those things that’s hard to pin down. Put a (hypothetically) blindfolded rider aboard the Rock Lobster and the first thing they’d probably notice is not the flavour of metal that makes up its tubes, but the just-so ride position and weight distribution. The numbers are well within the ballpark for classically sorted hardtail geometry, so it’s no surprise to find that the Lobster is impeccably well behaved out on the trail, minding its manners and rarely putting a tyre knob out of place.
Merlin Cycles claims that the double-butted tubeset provides plenty of rigidity without chunky tubes, and this is borne out by spirited low-speed technical climbs, which belie titanium’s reputation for a tendency towards noodly squirminess with a taut rigidity that encourages lung-busting efforts. Put the boot in and wind the bike up to big ring speeds, though, and all that expensive aeronautical plumbing starts to pay real dividends. Put simply, the faster you go, the more the Rock Lobster filters out all that irritating high-frequency trail buzz. Low-speed control and high-speed comfort… sound like a recipe for singletrack fun? You betcha.
SUMMARY
During the course of this test, we took the Rock Lobster Team Titanium for a week’s lift-assisted gravity riding in the French Alps. Although this was akin to taking a penknife to a gunfight - and we occasionally wished for more than 100mm of travel, which the Lobster’s geometry would happily accommodate - it didn’t skip a beat.
There’s not much more to say, other than that this is the kind of bike-for-life hardtail that many riders aspire to, but few can afford. The crucial difference being, in this case, that the Rock Lobster Team Titanium really is eminently affordable. What are you waiting for?
TESTER SAYS…
The highest compliment I can pay to the Rock Lobster Team Titanium is that I often forgot I was riding it. That may sound like damning it with faint praise, but when you’re ricocheting down root- and rock-strewn Alpine singletrack with 28lb of camera gear on your back, the last thing you want to be worrying about is whether the bike’s going to get you around the next corner. It never let me down.
OVERALL VERDICT
4.5
One of the best value titanium hardtails out there just got better: a great value all-rounder.
