Custom 29er Titanium

[nicemonkey]

I had the frame built to my spec in china (by XACD), it has always been a dream of mine to build a bike up from scratch. I built it with cross country and endurance racing in mind. It has a direct mount rear brake, tapered headset, BB30, no chainstay bridge and obviously its a 29er. It really flies on fast single track and fire road.

Its was a shade under 9kg (8.98kg) obviously there are a few areas I could have save weight...carbon frame, different grips and brakes but I wanted something I could hammer and that was comfortable. I was in too much of a rush to ride the bike to weight the last few things.

Frame..........XACD Custom Titanium.........1.81kg
Forks...........Whisky 7 carbon.......................652g
Saddle.........Smud..........................................69g
Seat post.....Smud........................................135g
BB................Sram PF30..................................86g
BB Shaft.......Cannondale..............................104g
Cranks.........Hollowgram SL BB30................367g
L C ring........Rotor Q ring (40).......................67g
S C ring........Rotor Q ring (27).......................26g
Stem.............Syntace F99 (Ti bolts.................92g
Handlebars...Syntace Duraflite Carbon 8°.....152g
Disc bolts.....Ti x12........................................15g
Rear Mech.....XT............................................228g
Front Mech....XT............................................151g
B cage............MZoom Ti..................................25g
Tubes............Specialized...............................215g each
Seat clamp.....KCNC.........................................11g
Grips.............Ergon GS2................................235g
F Wheel.........Duke carbon 29er.....................660g
R Wheel........Duke carbon 29er......................800g
Tires.............S works Renegade 1.95......480-500g
Cassette........XT..11-34.................................314g
QR.................Superstar Ti................................44g
Brakes...........Hope Tech X2 Disc Brakes
Headset.........Cane Creek
Rotor.............Alligator
Shifters..........XT

[toosahn]

Nice! I like it.

[LiveFastRideHard]

The chainstays and seatstays look well designed and welded. The integrated rear brake is a great idea and the whole bike is clean and simple, just as it should be. Titanium is a timeless classic, love the bare metal!!

[olli]

Could you tell us little bit about the process with XACD? Did they offer any feedback or did you send them full drawings and got back just what you ordered? How much details did they ask? As in tube thickness choices and that sort of things. I've been thinking of ordering a road frame from them.

[nicemonkey]

I had a clear idea of what I was after so it was quite straight forward for me, I contact Porter "xacd@ti-bike.com" with a rough idea of what I wanted, and he came back with what was possible. I did a lot of research on the internet and drew the frame (I am an illustrator) gave him the angles and measurements as well as pictures of elements I liked from other frames. He then sent me back a CAD drawing. As for tube thickness, I again looked around at what others were doing and went from there. I left the final decision down to porter (with my approval) other than the chain stay thickness he didn't change anything.

Below is the final CAD drawing that he produced for me. You might find Spanner bike useful.

[mrfish]

Really nice bike - just spent 20 mins looking over Spanner Bike - a very good resource. It makes me tempted to get a titanium tandem built. Possibly a 29er or a dedicated time trial bike or....Decisions...

[dcj9]

bare titanium seems the perfect material for a mountain bike, in that it builds into a great frame and the finish will look great for years.

[nicemonkey]

Just saved some weight by going tubeless, thought I might have saved a bit more but scales are saying 8.87kg, might have been a bit heavy handed with the Stans fluid or more likely the scales I am using are a little out.

First race on this bike tomorrow, so hopefully I will have some pictures of it in full flight or knowing my girlfriend some pictures of a bloke that looks a bit like me who was wearing a similar colored top!

[TimmS]

The seatpost should be mounted vice versa....

[RichTheRoadie]

^^ Beat me to it.

Yes, your seatpost is in the wrong way around!