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Metal Frames / Soft-Tail Build
« on: July 05, 2023, 04:00:52 PM »
Hi there,
I had started mountain biking on a hard tail with 120 mm travel up front and some wide 27.5x 2.8" tires. Eventually the full suspension envy set in and I built up a Chinese carbon with 150mm front and rear travel. While it is still a fantastic full squish I was never as fast and it always felt like over kill on the desert trails I ride here in New Mexico. The full suspension had a max rear tire of 2.35" and I also really missed the low pressures I could ride on my original hard tail. Also, every dull thunk of a pebble being thrown into the carbon frame made me cringe and fear for my life. This lead me to start pondering having a titanium hardtail built. However, I stubbled on a couple others on this Forum who had Titan weld up some custom soft tail frames similar to the Funk La Ruta+ and the Leon 88 Semita. (QuentinLL and Ottoreni, thanks for all the tips and pointers!) Having seen how well the soft tails came out I decided to have Titan weld up a frame to my specs. I had previously used Tiris for a gravel bike build. The quality of the build from Titan was soo much better (I don't want to get into the troubles and quirks I've dealt with that frame here), but the Titan build was much smoother, no weird quirks, and with so much better communication.
This soft tail bike is an absolute Joy to ride! It is the perfect tool for rough, rocky trails I ride. It is definitely not a full suspension, but that is what I was going for. The one thing I would change if I did it again would be to opt for a slightly thinner flex plate. I used a 6 mm plate for the increased durability, but I think 4 mm would be fine and allow for more travel. The 6 mm is more rigid and as result I have to use less pressure in the shock.
I had started mountain biking on a hard tail with 120 mm travel up front and some wide 27.5x 2.8" tires. Eventually the full suspension envy set in and I built up a Chinese carbon with 150mm front and rear travel. While it is still a fantastic full squish I was never as fast and it always felt like over kill on the desert trails I ride here in New Mexico. The full suspension had a max rear tire of 2.35" and I also really missed the low pressures I could ride on my original hard tail. Also, every dull thunk of a pebble being thrown into the carbon frame made me cringe and fear for my life. This lead me to start pondering having a titanium hardtail built. However, I stubbled on a couple others on this Forum who had Titan weld up some custom soft tail frames similar to the Funk La Ruta+ and the Leon 88 Semita. (QuentinLL and Ottoreni, thanks for all the tips and pointers!) Having seen how well the soft tails came out I decided to have Titan weld up a frame to my specs. I had previously used Tiris for a gravel bike build. The quality of the build from Titan was soo much better (I don't want to get into the troubles and quirks I've dealt with that frame here), but the Titan build was much smoother, no weird quirks, and with so much better communication.
This soft tail bike is an absolute Joy to ride! It is the perfect tool for rough, rocky trails I ride. It is definitely not a full suspension, but that is what I was going for. The one thing I would change if I did it again would be to opt for a slightly thinner flex plate. I used a 6 mm plate for the increased durability, but I think 4 mm would be fine and allow for more travel. The 6 mm is more rigid and as result I have to use less pressure in the shock.