Custom Titus Fireline Singlespeed

Been a bit slack posting on the blog so avoid getting kicked off I'll tell you about my newish ss.

I started riding ss about about 2 years ago to avoid having to wash my bikes over winter but the bug bit pretty hard. In that time Ive had a decent stable of singlespeeds including the retro kona lavadome, voodoo wanga, curto 29er, ill-fated Scott scale and the now deceased Giant xtc. I almost never ride geared bikes anymore (My new anthem I got in Nov sits much to my wife's disgust in pieces in the laundry having only been ridden less than 1 hour) and rarely even race a geared bike.

Those who love the ss know there ain't no bling like ss bling so the hunt began for my ultimate singlespeed. After hours of research and much drooling I settled on a Titus Fireline which conveniently Jeff at Kiwibikes had started bringing into the country. Due to my lanky proportions and refined tastes I decided to go the custom route. I based the geo largely on my much loved Giant xtc with the exception of a much lower standover. Somewhat nervously seeing I'd never seen or ridden the bike I laid down my deposit and waited (and waited and for good measure waited some more).

Finally the day arrived when a lovely bike box arrived at my door and I wasn't disappointed. The welds were as nice as I've seen and overall I was a happy lad. I particularly like the simplicity of the slotted dropout which in my experience seemed like the lightest, simplest and overall best way of tensioning a ss chain. The frame came in at a respectable 3.22 pounds of titanium goodness.

Now that I've had the bike a few months and have done plenty of mileage on it how do I rate it? I really couldn't be happier with it. I won't claim the titanium gives it any magical properties but it is plenty light, looks good and most importantly is nice and stiff. Even under my lardy frame I can't get any flex from the rear end. From the first ride it felt natural (no doubt due to the familiar geo) and I'd wager is slightly faster than my previous ss's. Most importantly I've set a new record of not scheming over a new ss to replace it yet.

Thanks to Jeff at Kiwibikes for the frame and Jonty at Revolutions for building it up.

Spec list.

Titus Fireline frame

Rock Shox sids

Hope pro II /Stans Olympic wheels

White Industry cranks

XTR brakes

Thomson post/stem

Answer carbon bars

Ezigrip Racer edge grips