I suppose its not too much to ask but I think it's too late. I did consider it but I've never had to use one before so doubt I'd need to. Thats a cool shot of your bike. Although yours was not made by Titan, have you been happy with your frame?

Okay, so I did change a few things and have received my final frame drawing that I have now approved. I opted to go for a T47 BB in the end. BB30 wasn't such a great idea in hindsight and I think T47 will give me lots of felxibility in the future as to what cranks I can run.

I also asked for a longer ISP, now 740mm instead of 700mm - too short is a big problem, too long, not so much!

I also had fixings added to the seat-stay and chainstay bridges for mounting full mudguards. Although this is very much going to be a hardtail for most of the time, having options for a rack and mudguards is just sensible. I also had additional rivnuts added to the seat tube so a second bottle can be used on the bike.

Final drawing attached

You've got the usual SR suntour suspension posts and then there are the Redshift clones here: https://shorturl.at/zORXZ

Redshift posts get favourable reviews but not many reviews on the clones.

If you want more comfort, consider a differnent saddle choice. I love the SQLab ergowave saddles. I did over 100k miles on my last one and they are the best for me. My other favourite saddle is the Tube Speedneedle. Neither are cheap or aliexpress jobbies though.

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.

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 and thats a good enough reason for me.

The total price will end up being about $1200 which includes 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 40 miles per day and I don't ride so frequently on my days off.

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Frame geometry is outdated but it is based off the Cannondale Flash from 2013.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.

I intend fitting the majority of the stuff 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.

I've opted for BB30 bottom bracket shell and external cable routing. I just doing like internal routing personally and I have lots of frames so changing stuff between bikes is a lot easier like this.

The 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.

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 but I am not in a rush.

Heya,

I own a GX cassette and I'm into replacing it with a lighter option. Garbaruk makes sick cassettes, but it's pricey and I'm not willing to pay it.
Any AliExpress model which you recommend? A friend of mine vouch for the SunShine light weight option, but I haven't read anything about it, so I'm here to ask.

Cheers,
M

Depending where you're based, AirBike is a good shout. I used their XD cassette a few years back when there was a parts drought during covid. Good build quality and price was really the determining factor. I am also in the UK so it was good to have them shipped out and delivered more quickly than Aliexpress options. https://airbike.uk/products/copy-of-12-speed-9-52t-xd-cassette-fits-sram-xd-gx-eagle-mountain-bike-mtb-freewheel?_pos=2&_sid=575c2dd79&_ss=r

You can get the 6-bolt Avid (SRAM) Centerline rotors for pretty cheap on AliExpress, and they're a real product that works. Price to performance they are hard to beat. I've used a few lighter and cheaper Chinese rotors that just did not perform well.

I'll back this option up too. Great value, genuine items and do the job nicely as expected

Did you happen to get the weight on these?

I got some generic carbon ones in 760mm in 175g and have been great. I recently changed them out for some alloy ones though since I'm playing with the amount of backsweep.

These are a much better value option than Lewis Brakes. I agree though - china comes up with some proper wtf names for their products and seem so random. I think i'll bite the bullet on a set of these in silver to replace my maguras which has been something on my list for a while!