Show us your Titanium....
- Thread starter potnoodle
- Start date
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Exlaser2
Veteran
Very jealous , the only thing better than one Ventus is two of them . My wife bought me mine seven years ago for my fiftieth , only fitted with APEX ( but I did buy some very nice mavic wheels to go with it lol ) Still love it as much as the first time I rode it. Thinking for my sixtieth birthday and it’s tenth I might treat it to a group set upgrade.
Jenkins
Legendary Member
- Location
- Felixstowe
The 2nd Ventus (the SE) was a lucky spot - Van Vicholas were clearing out the last of their web stock as end of line and it was just as the Pound hit its highest point against the Euro so, even with delivery and exchange charge by the credit card company, it came in at just a few pounds over £1000
Both of mine are fitted with Apex, but I've a Planet X Pro Carbon that has Rival 22 and the long term aim is to swap groupsets with the 'best' Ventus.
Hicky
Guru
Bought May/June 2014, this is it now as of a few days ago, changes, bartape and new wheels....halo wide rims on tiagra hubs I’ve run for 10years and still like silk. The SRAM Apex has never been adjusted and it’s done some serious miles. With a good clean it looks less than a year old. If I’m doubt try one and you’ll buy Ti!
rogerzilla
Legendary Member
jamin100
Guru
- Location
- Birmingham
New . . . to me 
Foghat
Freight-train-groove-rider
Finally got around to building up my Kinesis GF-Ti commuter.
I bought the frame for a heavily discounted price a few years ago, and have gradually been acquiring all the parts to build it into what will be my main crap-weather commuting workhorse. I've managed to reduce the commute from the gruelling 200 miles per week, all year round whatever the weather, to something a bit less demanding. That 200 miles was all on badly surfaced/maintained roads, and with infernal constant bloody headwinds due to the orientation of my morning 20-mile ride straight into the prevailing wind, and the return 20-mile journey almost always suffering from the wind veering round substantially to my detriment by the end of the day.
Those incessant headwinds drove me to a very enjoyable and successful experiment/phase with an electric bike, which lasted for two years or so. It's nice to be back to entirely self-propelled commuting, but I've still got the electric bike and use it occasionally when I'm running late for a meeting and have a stiff headwind between me and the office (the inward journey is pretty much uphill all the way, so the electric-assist makes a significant difference to the morning commute, less so to the evening one).....or if I just want to rest my legs.
The electric bike has nice Shimano RS685/RS785 hydraulic disc brakes, and I much prefer these to rim brakes for arse-weather commuting - so I was very keen to have a disc-brake-equipped unassisted commuting bike too. Not continually wearing out the rims and not getting black brake-block sludge over everything with every wet ride is very appealing....as is the reduction in lever force for brake actuation.
And titanium is a good frame material for a bike used for commuting through British winters - no rusting, no concerns about damaging paint when using bike stands, and easy to maintain. Installing the internally-routed brake hoses was a bit of an embuggerance, necessitating the deployment of magnets and some cunning use of poking implements.....Kinesis hadn't done a very good job of making it a straightforward exercise, but I got there in the end. Facing the rear disc brake flat mount was not easy, as the titanium is almost too hard for the facing cutter to have much effect. Fortunately, the mount was not far off square, so not such a big deal thankfully. Facing the fork post mount was very easy, with my Park DT5.2 facing tool.
Judging by how crap the last winter was, I suspect this bike will be getting a lot of hard use. Have got two wheelsets for it, so will be able to switch between tyre types for different conditions. Am back to office working now, three days a week, so the recent return of the cycling commute has been most welcome.
I bought the frame for a heavily discounted price a few years ago, and have gradually been acquiring all the parts to build it into what will be my main crap-weather commuting workhorse. I've managed to reduce the commute from the gruelling 200 miles per week, all year round whatever the weather, to something a bit less demanding. That 200 miles was all on badly surfaced/maintained roads, and with infernal constant bloody headwinds due to the orientation of my morning 20-mile ride straight into the prevailing wind, and the return 20-mile journey almost always suffering from the wind veering round substantially to my detriment by the end of the day.
Those incessant headwinds drove me to a very enjoyable and successful experiment/phase with an electric bike, which lasted for two years or so. It's nice to be back to entirely self-propelled commuting, but I've still got the electric bike and use it occasionally when I'm running late for a meeting and have a stiff headwind between me and the office (the inward journey is pretty much uphill all the way, so the electric-assist makes a significant difference to the morning commute, less so to the evening one).....or if I just want to rest my legs.
The electric bike has nice Shimano RS685/RS785 hydraulic disc brakes, and I much prefer these to rim brakes for arse-weather commuting - so I was very keen to have a disc-brake-equipped unassisted commuting bike too. Not continually wearing out the rims and not getting black brake-block sludge over everything with every wet ride is very appealing....as is the reduction in lever force for brake actuation.
And titanium is a good frame material for a bike used for commuting through British winters - no rusting, no concerns about damaging paint when using bike stands, and easy to maintain. Installing the internally-routed brake hoses was a bit of an embuggerance, necessitating the deployment of magnets and some cunning use of poking implements.....Kinesis hadn't done a very good job of making it a straightforward exercise, but I got there in the end. Facing the rear disc brake flat mount was not easy, as the titanium is almost too hard for the facing cutter to have much effect. Fortunately, the mount was not far off square, so not such a big deal thankfully. Facing the fork post mount was very easy, with my Park DT5.2 facing tool.
Judging by how crap the last winter was, I suspect this bike will be getting a lot of hard use. Have got two wheelsets for it, so will be able to switch between tyre types for different conditions. Am back to office working now, three days a week, so the recent return of the cycling commute has been most welcome.
Last edited:
Mark Grant
Acting Captain of The St Annes Jombulance.
- Location
- Hanworth, Middx.
My new Planet X tempest gravel bike was delivered this week.
dan_bo
How much does it cost to Oldham?
Let's have a look at the clearances round the tyres feller
Mark Grant
Acting Captain of The St Annes Jombulance.
- Location
- Hanworth, Middx.
dan_bo
How much does it cost to Oldham?
Loads. Cheers.
