Titan Ti 29er

nicklej

Cannondale Fan
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Hey guys.

I've done my research into getting a custom Ti hardtail frame made. Lots of choices in China and many more elsewhere but my budget doesn't allow for that right now.

In the end I have gone for a frame to be made by Titan. I intended to order a frame a few years back and didn't get round to it but paid my deposit yesterday and looking forward to updating you guys on how the frame comes out when I get it.

I have opted for an integrated seatpost this time. No real reason other than I like the look of it and never tried it before.

standard frame.PNG

The total price will end up being about $1200 which includes, both sets of interchangeable dropouts, the Ti seatpost topper and shipping to the UK which is about $260 - so in terms of cost, if the frame lives up to what I expect, then it will be great value. My rides are mostly tarmac and paths because the majority of my mileage is commuting I don't ride so frequently on my days off although when I do, its mostly in the New Forest.

Spec wise:

Frame geometry is outdated but it is based off the Cannondale Flash from 2013. I have this bike right now and the fit is perfect for me, so i thought I'd better not mess with that.

frame geo.PNG

I intend fitting the majority of the stuff from my Cannondale onto the Ti frame. This includes a lefty fork and I also have a titanium lefty fork on order from Van Nicholas. Again, no purpose other than aesthetic. The fork will cost more than the frame when I get my customs bill, probably £1200 all said but it's unique and they sent a diagram over too which they took some time to find.

vannicforkgeo.jpg
Van-Nicholas-Revelstoke-titanium-mountain-bike04.jpg

I've opted for BB30 bottom bracket shell and external cable routing. I just don't like internal routing personally and I have a few frames so changing stuff between bikes is a lot easier with cabling thats external.

The Canndondale lefty fork has a spacing of 135mm between clamps, so I asked for headtube to be 134mm and I have shims to remove any gaps. I just wanted that extra mm to account for any tolerance stacks. I didn't want a 1.5" heatube (upper and lower) like my Cannondale so opted for tapered instead and gonna use standard IS42 and IS52 bearings and then I will use a lefty adapter to fit that on.

Rear of the bike will have exchangeable dropouts for 135mm QR and 142mm TA.

Anita has come back to me lots of times confirming small details like the types of cable stops and direction of cable routing I want. Small details I had overlooked initially so I'm pleased with her attention to detail to capture everything how I want it.

Experience with Titan so far:

I have always heard back from Anita when emailing and she had been at Titan for over a decade, perhaps even from the start.
I like that the replies are helpful and fast. There is a time-zone difference of course but sometimes we have exchanged emails minutes which is great when finalizing details.

So that's it for now. I expect to get the frame probably in late-March and the Van Nic fork will arrive at some point but I am not in a rush. I plan on keeping my carbon Flash frame as a backup. I am a chronic seller of parts that I have replaced and many times regretted doing so. Hopefully not in this case but I'd rather no chance it in case the worse happens.
 
Brave man going for the integrated seat post. I know it will look amazing but with that diameter of tubing will it be too harsh? Do you know the internal tubing diameter in case you don't get on with it and if the worst comes to it you can carefully chop it off, file a slot in and run a regular post?
Love the Ti lefty BTW.
 
Brave man going for the integrated seat post. I know it will look amazing but with that diameter of tubing will it be too harsh? Do you know the internal tubing diameter in case you don't get on with it and if the worst comes to it you can carefully chop it off, file a slot in and run a regular post?
Love the Ti lefty BTW.
I didn't ask actually but I think it'll be 31.8mm. I hadn't considered running a standard post but guess that could be an option should it come to that.

The Ti lefty is cool. The titanium steerer is also included which will be a nice upgrade from my alloy one currently.
 
Forks look cool but I'm less sold on the frame specs. I'm not sure which is more leftfield; the integrated seatpost or BB30
 
Forks look cool but I'm less sold on the frame specs. I'm not sure which is more leftfield; the integrated seatpost or BB30
Yeah, both may not be the best choice! I went with BB30 purely because I was copying the spec of my Cannondale Flash. Plus I have cranks for it but for a very long time, i've just been using a Rotor BB30 to 24mm BB and using XTR cranks. In hindsight, T47 may have been a better choice but hey, shes gonna be BB30 now. I guess metal frames commonly have threaded BBs for a reason but I don't see a problem with it provided the toleraces are actually how they should be.
 
Anita sent the frame drawing. Overall, I am happy but there were a few things I have asked to be changed:

Move the bottle cage on the downtube upward and put rivnuts onto the seat tube so I can have two bottles.

Asked to have eyelets on the chainstay and seat stay bridges so I have the option of full mudguards in the future.

I've also queried the ISP length. My saddle is at 740mm from the centre of the BB to the top and the drawing shows the ISP as 400mm. I imagine that should be okay once the seatpost topper is in place but best to check.

Also the ISP is 34.9mm, so that is gonna be quite stiff. I don't think that'll matter for the riding I mostly do though.

NT-84470059729M-20240206 (1).jpg
 
lso the ISP is 34.9mm, so that is gonna be quite stiff
:eek:


Should add that I've oredered 2 custom Ti frames in the past so know how much agonizing goes into all the details, so sorry if I'm not helping here... I'm sure it will be fine with a nice supple rear tyre.
 
lso the ISP is 34.9mm, so that is gonna be quite stiff
:eek:


Should add that I've oredered 2 custom Ti frames in the past so know how much agonizing goes into all the details, so sorry if I'm not helping here... I'm sure it will be fine with a nice supple rear tyre.
I've used 34.9mm posts in the past on hardtails. I can't remember those times well enough to say I remember it being that stiff, or noticeably stiffer than my usual 27.2mm posts. But i guess since this is an ISP, the rigidity will be noticeably higher. My saddle has some squish but i mostly ride on the road so I think i'll just need to see what it is like when i get it built up.

The fork I ordered from Van nicholas was cancelled so I think i'll just be using my lefty to begin with. I'll then use a small part of the original budget to get a set of rigid forks and matching front wheel built instead. The Ti lefty has no practical advantages over a carbon rigid fork and is much heavier too but I still liked the quirkiness of it.

Do you have build threads of your bikes on here and who made your frames?
 
No build threads, first one was a Setavento frame ages ago, that rode nicely but cracked in a couple of places which put me off Ti for a while.
53518276166_f4453d2127_o.jpg


Had a few steel hardtails but always wanted to get back onto a Ti frame so ended up with a Kingdom bikes frame
p5pb22749268.jpg
 
Had a few steel hardtails but always wanted to get back onto a Ti frame so ended up with a Kingdom bikes frame
p5pb22749268.jpg

How do you run the dropper cable on the vendetta? I have the same downtube entry point on mine (and internal routing on the top tube) but I can't see how it's supposed to be routed. Website is pretty useless too!
 
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