I've read so many positive reviews about Titanflex bikes that I thought I'd give them a shot. The guy who makes them (Tom) lives in San Diego and while I was out here for a week I emailed him and asked for a test ride.
I'm 25 and pretty competitive, and originally thought that beam bikes were for old guys with back problems. But the aero data and all that stuff kept my mind open...and the girlfriend needed me out of the house for an hour or two so it worked out great.
He was at work and gave me his personal ride to try out as we were roughly the same size. A few things about the bike surprised me even after reading all the stuff that's on ST already. The first is how thin it is. I thought the frame was going to be extremely thick and block-ish. wasn't true. It is thinner than i expected and the whole design is pretty simple in a good way. he had a pretty sweet powdercoat job on it, similar to a 'house of kolor' kameleon paint if anyone knows what that means.
second was how stiff the BB area was. I've ridden some bikes that were 'flexy' (don't ask me how to test for this, it's more of a feeling of stiffness and just having ridden so many bikes for so damned long) and heard that beam bikes were supposed to be. not true, I rode it up some (albeit small) hills and no BB area flexy-ness.
There was some bouncing involved, but he had the most 'bouncy' boom on it and they come much stiffer. I ride rollers a bunch so I expected my super skills to eliminate the bounce, but i guess not. It definitely smoothed out the road though, and I rode over some pebbles/speed bumps/rough stuff per his recommendations.
Overall, really cool bike. Tom is a great guy who seems like he knows his stuff pretty well. He's patient enough to answer all my annoying questions which is a rarity.
PS Tom had the 'clean brake' thing on his bike, it was the prototype for what he's selling. That thing is REALLY cool. If you're building up a climber and you're the type that uses a frame-shifter for your FrontDer to save weight over STI, you'll love this thing. plenty of stopping power. I don't know if I'd use it on my tri bike but when I build a climber its definitely going on there.
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My training
I'm 25 and pretty competitive, and originally thought that beam bikes were for old guys with back problems. But the aero data and all that stuff kept my mind open...and the girlfriend needed me out of the house for an hour or two so it worked out great.
He was at work and gave me his personal ride to try out as we were roughly the same size. A few things about the bike surprised me even after reading all the stuff that's on ST already. The first is how thin it is. I thought the frame was going to be extremely thick and block-ish. wasn't true. It is thinner than i expected and the whole design is pretty simple in a good way. he had a pretty sweet powdercoat job on it, similar to a 'house of kolor' kameleon paint if anyone knows what that means.
second was how stiff the BB area was. I've ridden some bikes that were 'flexy' (don't ask me how to test for this, it's more of a feeling of stiffness and just having ridden so many bikes for so damned long) and heard that beam bikes were supposed to be. not true, I rode it up some (albeit small) hills and no BB area flexy-ness.
There was some bouncing involved, but he had the most 'bouncy' boom on it and they come much stiffer. I ride rollers a bunch so I expected my super skills to eliminate the bounce, but i guess not. It definitely smoothed out the road though, and I rode over some pebbles/speed bumps/rough stuff per his recommendations.
Overall, really cool bike. Tom is a great guy who seems like he knows his stuff pretty well. He's patient enough to answer all my annoying questions which is a rarity.
PS Tom had the 'clean brake' thing on his bike, it was the prototype for what he's selling. That thing is REALLY cool. If you're building up a climber and you're the type that uses a frame-shifter for your FrontDer to save weight over STI, you'll love this thing. plenty of stopping power. I don't know if I'd use it on my tri bike but when I build a climber its definitely going on there.
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My training