Presenting: My dream bike (kinda)! A custom-built titanium touring bike frame, designed to fit my unusual body and eat up my unusual rides. Designed by me, built by Titan Cycles out of Xi'an, China. Due to the bike part shortage, and the fact that I'm still in school (Yes, my financial priorities are messed up), I'm holding off on getting my ideal spec of parts in favour of some old parts and cheap stuff from AliExpress that will eventually be replaced.
For those wondering, I paid $1400 USD for the frame+fork, fully customized. Given that a comparable off-the-shelf steel or aluminium frame+fork would cost near-$1000, and that my strange body shape (short legs, long torso, 40" waist) has never allowed me to find a super comfortable bike, the case for the custom Ti frame wasn't too hard to justify.
Bad photo, I know, but it's the only one I have of it fully loaded.
The closer one is mine.
This is out on a shakedown ride - 120km from Nanaimo to Victoria, BC. This was mostly to test stiffness and real-world usability - I weigh 260lbs, the bike weighed 115lbs, and I towed my sister (130lbs) and her bike (55lbs) up the steeper hills on the island. Had ZERO issues with flexing, creaking, instability at high speeds, etc. For those who know the area: Descending Malahat Drive on TCH-1 at 80km/h with a 115lb bike was one of the most unexpectedly fun things I've ever done on a bicycle.
As a part of the weird components I threw on the frame, I had a 42-24t crankset and a 11-40t 9 speed cassette. It shifted poorly, which is forgivable given I was exceeding both max tooth count and chain wrap numbers on the derailleur. That being said, having a 17 gear-inch granny gear has completely changed the way I think about hills, and I don't know if I can go back. Once Shimano starts shipping parts to Canada again, I'll try and get a 3x11 XT M8000 groupset, which boasts a 42t capacity and 22t front chainring combo. Thoughts on this? I don't ride terribly quickly (120km or so per day), so the 42t top ring is not a problem. What do you run for ultra-low gearing?