Bicycho415

Just bought the Ti Whipshot from bikes direct. I would love to post pictures. But I can't at the moment. So far I love the bike. It's so beautiful. It's like a 4 Runner of bicycles. It's got mounts, Sram Force 1 groupset. Ritchey seatpost and handlebar stuff. Such a gorgeous bike. I have no complaints. whatsoever. I would like to hear anything from the people who are interested in a bikes direct bike or a Titanium frame in general. I did two years of research before spending this kind of money on a bicycle. So if you have any questions, please ask. Cheers

Bicycho415

The cables are a little long from the factory. I have yet the desire to deal with dot fluid and snippers at the moment. Had a LBS look over my hand in the work. Needed the derailleur worked on as I can't stand doing it myself. The used lock tight on many bolts and tightened everything to spec for torque. Pushed her through a lot of rain so far in San Francisco this week. I would like to get some fenders put on for the rest of the rainy season.

This is my current setup for the weather and night riding. I really like the low profile design of knog lights. Looking into SKS fenders Bluemels for the rain.

fronesis

It's not like it will cause any problems, but I'm pretty sure they did on your bike just what they did on mine: left the brake hoses at full length. (The derailleur cable and housing was fine.)

If you aren't comfortable adjusting a RD, then I do NOT recommend you try to shorten and re-bleed your brakes. It's not rocket science, but it is definitely more involved than adjusting a derailleur, and since you are dealing with toxic DOT 5.1 fluid, you don't have as much margin for error.

Attached are a couple of pics of my wife's bike, after I did the following:

• Replaced the 6-bolt rotors with proper center-lock rotors (the wheels have center-lock hubs)
• Replaced the defective SRAM brake retaining springs with the proper ones
• Replaced the bars and stem with ones that dialed-in my wife's fit
• Replaced the pedals and saddle
• shortened the brake hoses and rebled the system

Cyclist0108

How are the welds?

fronesis

I'm no expert, but they look excellent to me.

If you look at the third picture I posted (above), you get a pretty good shot of the welds of both the top tube and the down tube into the head tube. The work around the bottom bracket (lots of welding) looks particularly clean to me.

I did a bit of reading before purchase, and many people vouched for the quality of the frame-maker, which is Ora, in Taiwan. I also couldn't find any reports of problems with Ora Ti frames.

I'm not claiming it's the same quality as a custom-built frame, or a Moots or a Seven. But I've looked at Lynskeys up close, and if anything the Ora looks better. Given that the groupset on the bike retails for over $1,000, the wheelset retails for over $500, and the Ritchey finishing kit retails for a few hundred more....it's hard to complain. The Ti frame and the full carbon fork are almost included for free.

Of course, as I reported above, in my case I spent more time getting this bike set up than I have on complete, groud-up builds in the past. That's because the defective/wrong brake pad spring took me hours and hours and hours to sort out.

Cyclist0108

That story is probably worthy of a thread of its own if you have the time...

fronesis

It was a thread in the "wrenching" section of that other message board. But the summary of it goes like this:

Background – I'm a pretty decent amateur mechanic, but I'm still an amateur; I do all my own wrenching and have built half a dozen bikes from the frame up, and dealt with Shimano hydro brakes a few times, but not SRAM.

1. Setting up bike and COULD NOT for the life of me get the caliper to center on the rotor. This is always fiddly, but it seemed impossible.

2. When I finally did appear to get the caliper centered on the rotor, with no rub, all it would take to mess this up is to let the wheel bounce a few inches off the shop floor (or hit any small bump on the road). At that point the rotor would appear to hit the brake pad retaining spring. There was NO WAY to correct. I thought it might be a problem with the rotors, or for the frame and caliper specs, or...

3. The brad pads and retaining spring were brand new, of course, and they looked fine.

4. But not knowing what else to try, I bought a new set of SRAM road pads and put them in. Problem solved.

It turns out the problem was the brake pad spring. The one that came with the new bike was too narrow at the top and too loose as a spring. It didn't press the pads back far enough, making it almost impossible to center the caliper on the rotor. And even when the caliper was centered, it would slide down and hit the rotor directly.

The spring with the new pads looked almost the same, but it was different: it didn't narrow above the pads the way the original did, and it had FAR more spring. Put the new pads in and it was immediately obvious that I had way more room to center the caliper. On the old spring the spring would slide up and down above and below the pads. On the new spring, the pads and spring float together as one unit, and the rotor never hits the spring.

With hindsight, it was easy to see that I had the wrong spring. But in the process, it was not at all obvious that that was the problem. The old spring and the new looked almost identical.

Cyclist0108

Thanks!

I'll take a look at ours, which are now in a box. On my kid's mountain bike (Canyon), we wound up replacing the entire brakesets (with XT).

Bicycho415

I do not argue with the fact that the bike isn't finished. It definitely needs a mechanics touch to address some underlying issues. But given the fact that you are receiving a remarkably welded professional titanium frame with a top of the line groupset and finished with richey components is remarkable at this price point. I bought the bike in San Francisco California online and the overall cost was $1948.00__ done. No California state tax. No hidden fees or surcharges. I had done my research for literally years and when I saw this bike, with fender mounts and rear rack mounts on a cross geometry, which is closer to road geometry than anything else. I looked at the handling, seat tube angle, head tube angle and wheel base, in addition to bottom bracket height. This bike was a no brainer. It has the handling of a road bike, with the build of a tough cross bike, wheel base to be nimble,,, yet still remain rugged. This is the ultimate commuter bike. Rack and fender mounts with the geo and brawn of a road/gravel bike,, in Titanium!! GTFOH. For $1948.

I waited 2 years for this spec and I got it for a steal. Bike direct knocked this one out of the park. I understand not everyone will be able to afford even $1948, but knowing that the components of this bicycle and it's mark on the industry, there is no doubt in my mind that anyone spending the 2399.99 on the bike after the black Friday special, is still getting an amazing deal.

fronesis

Wattsup

You got a nice deal. Now all you need to do is remove that fugly decal on the down tube and you'll be in good shape.

Bicycho415

Beautiful work. I'm not sure what spring you speak of that was defective. Mine seems fine and it shifts perfectly. I love the TR stem headset on your wifes bike. Looks tough as nails. The hosing I can deal with as I have every tool known to man for working on bikes. But I have never done dot fluid or any hydraulic brake work at all. I absolutely hate derailleur work and am happy paying my LBS conveniently located on my block to do the work for me. The housing I agree is most likely at full length but having them cut and bled and filled again seems silly. I just bought the compass tires in 38mm extralight barlow pass. Can't wait to get these slicks on the road for the rain in San Francisco. It's so plush. Well. I haven't rolled on them yet but. I will and soon. Also going to go tubeless as well. DId you go tubeless?

Here's in interesting link on tire width and a beautiful insight in the importance of tire width. I agree with you that the frame could maybe fit a 40 or up to a 42 possibly. I did measure the tire that comes with the bike, the challenge tires. They measure in at 35mm width actually. So pushing a 44 might actually be doable but you wouldn't know until you tried. That's what my LBS said to me as well. 9mm isn't that much depending on how the tire is dispersed on the rim.

https://janheine.wordpress.com/2013/...limeters-make/

Bicycho415

I agree the decal is fugly but in a very odd way. It's kind of growing on me. But it'll go eventually. I wish they would work out there decal issue. the one on the Le Champion in pinstriped more subtle text.

Anger67

Thinking about buying one, maybe two of these. I want to mount full fenders to them. Is there a pre-formed fork hole at the top center? looks like there are threaded holes in the fork dropouts for fender brace install.

The rear seat stays, seat stay bridge, and rear dropouts look fully formed for fenders.

Thanks in advance.

Hondo Gravel

Elvo

Will it fit 650x48?

Anger67

that's a stretch. it's 700c x 42 max. Granted 650b is smaller diameter, but where you going to hide that extra 6mm width?

Anger67

can't post youtube video because I have less than ten posts. however, just add https

www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7NcPYjZ_gk

fenders fitted, decal removed. ordering two. one for me, one for GF. Will be nice day tour bikes.

Elvo

Generally the ones that can fit 700x45 can also fit 650x48 but it depends on the chain stay and fork width.

fronesis

Anger67

Anger67

I'll let you know what the max tire I can fit on 650b's once my sample comes in. sounds like you're adding 3mm, so i'm guessing 45's. But I don't want to cut it too close to allow for wheel out of true tolerance etc. Nice to have a good gap there just in case you're out riding and things go wrong that you can't fix trail-side.

danthemanohhyea

What fenders are these? They look much better than the ones I have mounted on my Century Pro TI.

fronesis

They are Portland Design Works fenders in their "Road Plus" size. The fenders are 37mm wide and PDW says they can be used with tires up to 30mm. I'm running a 28mm tire that probably measures closer to 30 on the wide DT Swiss rims. The fenders were easy to install, are really solid, and provide fantastic coverage – no complaints at all from the person on my wheel in a wet group ride. As I mentioned above: I needed a longer hanger for the front fender (which I ordered from PDW), and I had to drill the rear fender at the seat-stay bridge. All the connections are direct thread-in and seem really really solid. I used double leather washers at the seat-stay and chain-stay, and if I was doing it over again I probably would have put lock-tite on those bolts, as I've had to retighten them after some relentless chip seal and the leather washers wearing in a bit.

danthemanohhyea

Thanks.
I've got a set of roadracer mk3 fenders and they're just not sturdy enough for my riding.

Seems almost like you'd want the "city" fenders though, no? Being able to go up to a 35 for winter riding would be ideal.