TejanoTrackie 

I've been think for a while now about getting a titanium road bike for general light touring and came across the Salsa Colossal Ti, which seems to fit the bill. It is a cross between a heavy slack geometry heavy touring bike and a light super responsive crit bike, similar to my old traditional road racing bikes. I like the wider 28mm tires and disk brakes, and the price is under $4K, which is in my budget. Do any of you own this bike or know anything about it in terms of ride quality ? Salsa also makes a chromoly version for $1500 less, so the titanium upgrade does cost a lot. I've ridden steel all my life and only have anecdotal evidence that titanium is sufficient improvement to justify the steep increase in price.

Jay Olson

Depending on what you want to do with the bike, 28mm tires are not really that big. You might want to look at Lynskey. The Lynskey Cooper CMT checks many of the same boxes, but can take 33mm tires with fenders. Also, I am pretty sure that Lynskey builds their own frames in the USA, and I am pretty sure that Salsa has theirs built by someone else (maybe even Lynskey).

marqueemoon

IIRC the ti Salsas are still built by Lynskey.

And yes the lack of tire/fender clearance on the Salsa is a little dumb. The upside is the tapered ENVE fork. It's not a touring bike by any definition though. It's an "endurance" road bike with disc brakes.

Jed19

Anecdotal evidence is not great as justification for shelling out $4000 on a frame. Especially a Ti frame. I say try and find a Ti bike or two to test-ride, then go from there. You just might find that Ti does not provide that much different ride characteristic(s) from modern steel or some of the steel bikes you've ridden before.

I have ridden two Ti frames (different manufacturers), but was very unimpressed with the sloppiness around the BB. I do like ogling nice Ti frames though. The only way I'll ever invest money in a Ti frame is if it were custom (tube shaping wise, not geometry).

TejanoTrackie 

Well, I took a chance and bought one sight unseen through Universal Cycles, who assembled and adjusted it before breaking it down and shipping it to me. They did a pretty good job, except the front wheel still needed some truing and tensioning done. I think I gave some of you a misconception of what I wanted when I said "light touring," as I really want something fast and nimble, but more comfortable than my oversized aluminum frame road race bike, which is very harsh riding on any surface that isn't perfectly smooth. I definitely don't need or want to install fenders or racks on this bike. Although Salsa says the maximum tire size is 700x28c, there is plenty of room in the rear for a 700x32c or maybe even a 700x35c tire. The frame is not made by Lynskey as one of you stated, since it sports a sticker that states "Made in Taiwan." Nonetheless, the workmanship is exemplary with some of the tidiest welding I've ever seen. I'm extremely pleased with it and will be putting a lot of miles on it for sure.

giantdefy

Beautiful bike! and it has disc brakes, which is pretty much what sram is trying to do on its newer road bikes. Great if you ride in foul weather! Im wondering if its made by ORA Engineering in Taiwan. Excellent quality frames from that company.https://oraeng.imb2b.com/sell/index.php?itemid=28881

ttakata73

Wow, looks sweet.
Can you post detail shots of all the welds?
I have been thinking about a disc titanium bike as well and am doing my homework.

rpenmanparker 

Everti in Canada also sells Ti bikes in North America made in Taiwan. Similarly very well constructed with clean attractive welds. They bill their Falcon as an endurance model, or you can get one custom built. Adrenaline Bikes has them at good prices. I have one about 4 years old and love it.

TejanoTrackie 

Well, I don't have the time to take pics of all the welds, so I'll just show you the one which is the most difficult to do properly at the juncture of the top tube, head tube and downtube. My frame is the smallest 51cm size, such that there is no separation between the toptube and downtube, and the angle between them is very small due to the sloping toptube. What appears to be a glitch at the top is just due to my camera flash. The welding is this good throughout the frame, heck, even the water bottle boss welds are this nice. I've never seen better quality welding than this at any price.

bbeasley

OP

This popped up over on the Commuter forum. You might want to verify it doesn't affect your fork.

TejanoTrackie 

No, it does not. It's a totally different fork, but thanks for the heads up.

TejanoTrackie 

It's been a couple of months now, and I've made some changes to the bike:

1) The stock WTB saddle has been replaced with a Selle Italia Flite 1990 saddle that is a lot more comfortable.

2) The stock zero setback Salsa zero setback seatpost has been replaced with a Thomson Elite setback seatpost to permit positioning the saddle back in a more touring position.

3) The undersized 140mm front brake rotor required too much lever effort when braking from the top position and has been replaced with a 160mm rotor that greatly improves braking action. Curiously, Salsa uses a 160mm brake rotor on their Vaya and Warbird road models, so it seems strange that they used a smaller rotor on the Colossal. Fortunately, the ENVE fork is able to accept a 160mm rotor, although I did need to purchase a caliper relocation kit with longer spacers and bolts.

4) The stock 11-28 10-speed cassette has been replaced with a 12-27 cassette that I had in my parts bin, and had been used very sparingly on my road bike for extremely hilly races. I find the 11 tooth sprocket unnecessary on a non-competition machine and the stock cassette is missing a crucial 16 tooth sprocket, which is present in the 12-27 cassette.

The bike is a delight to ride and I'm planning on doing some centuries in the fall when the temps cool down a bit.

Leo001

Im interested in your experiance with the Salsa, I have been contemplating switching from steel (Trek, Gary Fisher Lane) this has been my "go-to" bike, while I have a few others, I find this very compfortablem reguardless of what others say, I think disc brakes are a huge advantage over rim (I have a mountain bike and a hybrid with discs) and I would like to have discs on my road bike. So my question is, do you feel that the cost difference between the steel and Ti version was worth it? How does the ti compare to your steel bikes, is the weight difference significant?
Thanks

LJS

Hendricks97

Ive ridden both the steel and the Ti version of this bike. There is many upgrades to the Ti version besides the frame material, and yes, it is definitely worth it. I have the Ti Fargo and will be purchasing the Ti Colossal soon

TejanoTrackie 

Definitely worth the difference in price between the steel and Ti versions. As Hendricks97 pointed out, it's not just the frame but many component upgrades. For 2014, the Ti Colossal is being upgraded to Shimano Ultegra 11-speed (cable) shifting. As to a comparison of weight to my steel road bikes, that is difficult given that they are all at least 20+ years old. The colossal is definitely lighter, despite having heavier disk brakes. I believe it is about 2 lbs lighter than the steel version, but some of that difference may be component weights, since for example the Colossal has a carbon fiber seatpost and it is aluminum on the steel version. All this notwithstanding, I'm extremely pleased with the Colossal Ti and expect to have it for many more decades. Since my last post, I've added lights so I can go on evening rides to avoid the blistering Texas summer heat.

qqy

I've always been extremely happy with my Motobecane Century Ti - fits up to 40 tires and braze ons for a rack. Very decent stiffness with shaped tubes and ovelized stays. Only weights slightly more than the standard Ti frame. Well worth buying if you can find one.

TejanoTrackie 

For anyone who might be interested in buying the 2013 model Colossal Ti, Universal Cycles is having a clearance sale on them at 14% off, which amounts to $560 under MSRP. They no longer offer free UPS ground shipping on the discounted models, however, the savings still exceed $500. Note that Universal Cycles will completely assemble and adjust the bike prior to shipment and they will even set it up per your special instructions, such as my request to reverse the brake controls with the right lever operating the front brake and the left lever operating the rear brake. They have also announced that the 2014 Salsa models will no longer be shipped to buyers, and must be picked up in one of their brick and mortar retail stores.

https://www.universalcycles.com/shopp...&category=3707

dhfox

I saw it mentioned that the frame/fork has clearance to fit 32mm or 35mm tires. Has anyone tried to fit either of those two tire sizes? I'm looking to use mostly 28mm road tires, but I really would like the option to put on a 32 or 35mm file tread tire for the really rough roads.


What is the largest tire anyone has ridden with on your Colossal Ti? Do you have a picture by chance that shows the rear tire / chainstay / seatstay clearance? And also, you're sure that the fork will accept a 35mm tire?

Thanks!

UnfilteredDregs

If you want the wider clearances go with the Warbird. It'll handle up to 38mm. Nice thread resurrection...


and Salsa makes a great bike...they switched to Taiwan for their Ti bikes because of inconsistent quality with domestic suppliers.