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Admiring these frames, seem beautifully put together. Any experiences of what they ride like, specifically hardtail/titanium? (Vague musings of a 2nd hand frame that might be available!)
Kent Eriksen was one of the founders of Moots I believe, which explains why the build and finishing quality is immaculate. I would expect the ride quality to be as good as it gets...though they are I assume all custom tube profiled for each customer so it depends how the previous rider had it built for balance of stiffnesses. Begs the question of what aspect is previous owner unhappy with....
....and if you're wondering what it'll feel like to ride (not knowing whether you've ridden anything similar), the enduring memory I have of a nice XC focused Litespeed Ti hardtail was the buttery smoothness felt at the bar, this was very noticeable compared to similar style Alu or Carbon frames. Nice Ti just seems to absorb vibrations really well, which can help against fatigue on long rides. The other character I felt it had was that in comparison to the feel of a racey carbon hardtail that can transmit a lot of harsh impact at speed through a sort of brittle stiffness and result in backing-off on descents, the Ti just seemed to feel more and more alive the harder it's ridden and really started to sing and encourage speed which is a nice feeling to chase. A nice classic Ti frame like Eriksen should exhibit these qualities in spades and feel a bit different to many modern Ti hardtails which may be less manipulated or be more robust design, and can just feel a lot like Alu....
Pictures up if you get it..it'll be pron.
I've had one. My brother has it now. They're superb bikes. Workmanship is second to none. Taking nothing away from the standard Ti frames that you can buy from Stanton or Kingdom, these are a step or three above. As for how they ride, that totally depends on you as they are fully custom. You tell Brad what you want and he builds it, within reason. I say Brad as they're no longer Eriksen as Kent sold the business to his welder Brad Bingham. Hence they are called Bingham Built now. Kent still helps out but has taken a back seat. Lovely frames but I don't think I would buy another. I bought mine 10 years ago and so much changes so quickly that unless you're going for a straight forward XC machine, it'll be obsolete in a few years. Mine was based on a Cove Hummer, one of the first generation of rowdy trail hardtails and to this day it still looks superb. It's def more XC feeling these days with a 68 degree head angle,26" wheels and 1 1/8th head tube. My Chromag Samurai 65 ended the reign of the Eriksen and that's just being replaced by a Stanton Switch9er when it eventually arrives.