True North custom Ti

[rwatt]

Starting a new project centered around a custom titanium frame designed and built by Hugh Black of True North cycles in Ontario, Canada. Custom was a good option for me as I'm a short, light rider and finding an XS sized frame with the geometry I wanted is very difficult, and most factory frames are overbuilt for my weight, so most of the tubes on this frame are smaller diameter than typical (which of course means lighter). It's not going to be my Strava segment hunting machine (I have a cookie cutter carbon bike for that), more of a Gran Fondo, long solo ride type of bike, so there is a bit of extra clearance for larger tires and I will be using compact gearing. I wanted the appearance to be a little different than usual so we decided on white panels, which I think look fantastic with the smaller tubing and match up well with the logo on the fork and stem. Unfortunately they are just decals as white powdercoat on a bare Ti frame didn't turn out great, but if I ever wanted to change the colours or logos it would be very easy. The only thing I'm not sure about is the appearance of the seatpost since it doesn't match up with the brushed finish of the frame, but we shall see how it looks once built up. I'm not going for any crazy colours on this build, just a simple, clean look. The craftsmanship is beautiful and I can't wait to build it up and try out the ride of Ti.

I didn't get to weigh the frame by itself but here is the build list:

True North Ti frame, Chris King headset and ENVE expander - 1560g
ENVE 2.0 fork - 328g
SRAM Red group with 36-50 rings, 11-26 cassette, K-Edge chain catcher, KMC X10-SL chain - 1948g
Eriksen seatpost - 184g
Eriksen collar - 24g
3T Ergonova Team handlebar - 180g
3T ARX Pro stem with Ti bolts - 120g
Specialized Toupe Expert saddle - 187g
Look Keo 2 Max carbon pedals - 246g
Kinlin XR200/White Industries H2/Sapim Laser/rim tape - 1386g
Vittoria Open Pave 700x24 - 503g
Tubes/cables/bar tape etc - TBD

[gravity]

Wow excellent! I'm a short person myself (5'7) and would love to see this built!

[djay001]

really nice ti frame,

I'm going to follow the thread!
How tall are you? And do you have the details of the geometry of the frame?

[rwatt]

Thanks.
I'm 5'5" or so, it has a 52cm seat tube and top tube, head tube is a little under 10cm, and 41.5cm chainstays. HT angle 72, ST angle 73.5

[limba]

I think that looks awesome. I used to ride with the SCCC. Maybe I'll see you and the bike out on the roads.
Congrats. Let us know how it compares to your carbon ride.

[dwaharvey]

I agree the seatpost looks out of place, but that's easily fixed. Go to your local hardware store and get a scotchbrite pad, ideally the maroon or grey color, cut it into strips, wrap a strip around the post and hold it tight and rotate the post so that you brush around the tube. Keep doing this until the entire post has the brushed finish that you're looking for. I did this with the Eriksen post on my Funk (see my signature link), took about 30 mins to do the entire thing. If you take it easy going over the decal area you can also preserve a bit of contrast there so that the badge and writing can still be seen.

[GonaSovereign]

Nice! Hugh Black builds amazing bikes.
+1 on dawharvey's comment abut scotchbrite.

[rwatt]

limba - with my work schedule I can't do the weekend rides often but I do the Tuesday nighters as much as I can! I should change my avatar though since I now ride with Team905. Perhaps we've already crossed paths if you do any riding around Pelham/Lincoln.

dwaharvey - thanks for the tip on the seatpost, I may give that a try.

[civdic]

Fantastic bikes. I owned a custom road bike with race geometry with a mix of Columbus tubing. Alpha Q fork. Hugh was using Ritchey drop outs then. I live around the corner from his shop in Geulph. Very cool guy. He will build just about anything for anyone.

[rwatt]

Finished building it up today, everything went together perfectly and I think it looks fantastic. Put on the Shimano Dura-Ace C24 with Vittoria Pave tubulars because it's lighter. Weight as shown is 6.9kg. With the clinchers it would be approx. 7.1kg, which isn't too shabby at all. Test ride tomorrow and I will have to learn how to use SRAM (my other bikes have Dura-Ace 7800).

[jrobart]

Beautiful, congrats. Looking forward to the ride report.

[limba]

Nice beater bike.

Just kidding. Looks awesome. That might be the best looking True North I've seen.

[prendrefeu]

Looks great!

[nspace]

While I am not particularly fond of Hugh's work, this looks like a really sweet ride!

[rwatt]

Thanks all. I got the idea of white panels from looking at other Ti frames, and decided I wanted something different than the usual logo, which have an etched look. Anyways, took it out on the Tuesday night crit and the ride and fit are both excellent! With the smaller tubing, it is just stiff enough for me. It's not built for sprinting but I didn't want to go that route. I think someone a bit heavier would have a bad time on this frame (I'm 110lb). I tried to shift with the brake lever and shifted the wrong way a few times but I'll get used to SRAM easily enough.