Project Titus
Going to iron out the kinks tomorrow afternoon.
2006 Titus Racer-X
I was handed a matte black Racer-X frame and tasked with creating an XC race bike, specifically a bike made to tackle the 2006 Vermont 50 on September 24th. Also of importance is durability, since this bike will likely see a lot of milage and all-conditions abuse over the next few months.
Front to back and top to bottom, we start with a 31.8 carbon FSA K-Force riser bar mounted with Gripshift XO's and Magura Marta SL stoppers. The cockpit is mounted to the bike with a Thompson X4 stem complimented with a matching Thompson Elite set-back seatpost in the back. The stem/bar combo is pleasantly stiff compared to the flexy weight-wieny setup on my personal bike.
The front end is currently suspended with a temporary fork taken from another bike. The 2007 Fox F100X is still a few weeks away. That's why we have the silly stack of spacers... if we cut the steerer, the fork would be useless on its doner bike. Oh yeah, its a 2006 100mm Rock Shox Reba Race.
Gold Chris King headset. I added a Chris King Owl T-shirt to the order for myself and then built the wheels.
Anchored by Salsa Flip-off skewers (steel), the DTSwiss 240s hubs spin a featherweight wheelset. I utilized Stan's slightly heavier Olympic ZTR rims (about 30 grams heavier per hoop than the real-deal ZTR's) and laced them with DTSwiss Competition spokes and alloy nipples. After the last half-dozen wheelsets I've built I've really come to love Wheelsmith's Spoke Prep, which comes in 2 colors which aids in maintaining some sanity when dealing with different spoke lengths. It doesn't hold nearly as strong as blue threadlocking compound, yet still provides confident friction when tensioning and truing. Kenda Kharma DTC tires sealed by a Stan's NoTubes kit & their lightweight (they claim a scant 5 grams per wheel) yellow spoke tape. When talking with the sales rep at NoTubes, he said that it is possible to run their sealant with only the yellow tape and their valve stem. If no rubber rim strip is used, you can save about another 60 grams of rotating mass. I might beta-test this on my own bike, but am somewhat skeptical about the long term airtightness of this setup, not to mention questions about durability. Why even bother selling a rim strip then? hmmm....
The drive line is almost 100% SRAM, with a pc59 chain linking a carbon Truvativ Stylo crankset and a PG-990 cassette. We opted to splurge a bit and put on a pair of Crank Brothers Twin Ti pedals to first round out the the look of the bike, but also shave a little more rotating mass. Just shy of 50 less grams over the Eggbeater SL's, though avoiding the titanium spindle that renders max. rider weight to under 185 lbs. and keeps an extra $125 in our pockets.
Shifting is handled by XT front and X.9 rear derailuers. I used Avid's Flakjacket sealed cable system for roping everything together.
Rider-specific suspension tuning to follow shortly...
2006 Titus Racer-X
I was handed a matte black Racer-X frame and tasked with creating an XC race bike, specifically a bike made to tackle the 2006 Vermont 50 on September 24th. Also of importance is durability, since this bike will likely see a lot of milage and all-conditions abuse over the next few months.
Front to back and top to bottom, we start with a 31.8 carbon FSA K-Force riser bar mounted with Gripshift XO's and Magura Marta SL stoppers. The cockpit is mounted to the bike with a Thompson X4 stem complimented with a matching Thompson Elite set-back seatpost in the back. The stem/bar combo is pleasantly stiff compared to the flexy weight-wieny setup on my personal bike.
The front end is currently suspended with a temporary fork taken from another bike. The 2007 Fox F100X is still a few weeks away. That's why we have the silly stack of spacers... if we cut the steerer, the fork would be useless on its doner bike. Oh yeah, its a 2006 100mm Rock Shox Reba Race.
Gold Chris King headset. I added a Chris King Owl T-shirt to the order for myself and then built the wheels.
Anchored by Salsa Flip-off skewers (steel), the DTSwiss 240s hubs spin a featherweight wheelset. I utilized Stan's slightly heavier Olympic ZTR rims (about 30 grams heavier per hoop than the real-deal ZTR's) and laced them with DTSwiss Competition spokes and alloy nipples. After the last half-dozen wheelsets I've built I've really come to love Wheelsmith's Spoke Prep, which comes in 2 colors which aids in maintaining some sanity when dealing with different spoke lengths. It doesn't hold nearly as strong as blue threadlocking compound, yet still provides confident friction when tensioning and truing. Kenda Kharma DTC tires sealed by a Stan's NoTubes kit & their lightweight (they claim a scant 5 grams per wheel) yellow spoke tape. When talking with the sales rep at NoTubes, he said that it is possible to run their sealant with only the yellow tape and their valve stem. If no rubber rim strip is used, you can save about another 60 grams of rotating mass. I might beta-test this on my own bike, but am somewhat skeptical about the long term airtightness of this setup, not to mention questions about durability. Why even bother selling a rim strip then? hmmm....
The drive line is almost 100% SRAM, with a pc59 chain linking a carbon Truvativ Stylo crankset and a PG-990 cassette. We opted to splurge a bit and put on a pair of Crank Brothers Twin Ti pedals to first round out the the look of the bike, but also shave a little more rotating mass. Just shy of 50 less grams over the Eggbeater SL's, though avoiding the titanium spindle that renders max. rider weight to under 185 lbs. and keeps an extra $125 in our pockets.
Shifting is handled by XT front and X.9 rear derailuers. I used Avid's Flakjacket sealed cable system for roping everything together.
Rider-specific suspension tuning to follow shortly...
posted by BubbRubb at
7/06/2006 12:01:00 AM
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2 comments
