What Ti Road bike

Also look at Van Nicholas? And compare warranties.

Very happy with my Enigma Etape, 11 years old this year and still excellent.

as a man not designed for speed, i would be looking at something a bit comfort roadie.
spoiled for choice from my fave shop.

https://www.spacycles.co.uk/m1b0s223p0/Bikes/Audax-and-Sportive

And compare warranties.

And the companies reputation for honouring them.

If you can stretch to it, Enigma. Buy the frame only and put cheap/second hand parts on it in the short term. I own a PX tempest that I bought as both road and gravel and it is my winter road bike. But I also have owned an Enigma Etape, and the feel was a million miles different.

@ton I've always lusted after a Sabbath. The AR2 looks to be available at very reasonable prices and with some great options from Spa (ultra low gears for me please).

Another one for Enigma, they still have bikes and a couple of Evoke frames on their clearance page. I <heart> my Evoke a lot. 🙂

Looked up the Enigma Etape and Epic cycles doing an "ultegra" build with Hunt wheels - talk about bike Po**!  Hey Ton hows it going - good shout for spa cycles - that Sabbath looks the part.

Hey Ton hows it going – good shout for spa cycles – that Sabbath looks the part.

all good Stewart, and i hope you are too.
cant go wrong with anything from Spa. their own bikes are a bargain. and also they are great to deal with.

A mate in that there Manchester has the Dolan and loves it, but he only got it because Spa couldn't get the groupset to replace his stolen Elan.

I have a Laverack Jack, with an un-roadie GRX 2x set up and dynamo lighting. It's gorgeous, does everything I could want.

I can't help but think I could have got a similar Enigma and saved about a grand, but Laverack are only half an hour away and if you go in, they make a mean frothy coffee

Looked up the Enigma Etape and Epic cycles doing an “ultegra” build with Hunt wheels

Needs Di2 and proper deep sections for real bike porn... 😉

https://www.flickr.com/photos/kryton1957/52614847929/in/dateposted-public/

Regardless of the manufacturer, there's some kind of very pleasing aesthetic with most Ti road bikes.

i will be ordering a nice Ti audax bike in the near future.
this one will do me. very nice in the flesh.

https://www.spacycles.co.uk/m1b0s223p4583/SPA-CYCLES-Elan-Ti-(105-11-Speed-Hydraulic)

Planet X Hurricane with SRAM Force here, very happy with it. They get a bad rep but I've only ever had good service from them over many years and many bikes (I'm aware of their previous howlers, so I might just be lucky).

Needs Di2 and proper deep sections for real bike porn… 😉

You rang?

My Ribble CGR Ti. Love it the more I ride it. Yes, Ribble have their issues at the moment, but the bike is great. Well made, lovely welds, extremely comfortable but stiff enough to sprint up hills beautifully.

I chose the CGR over the Endurance as I wanted more clearance for wide tyres and full mudguards.

Also considered an Enigma. My Dad has one, and side by side there’s very little in it between that and the Ribble. I looked at the Etape but ruled it out as it was another £1000 for the same spec and it didn’t have fully internal cable routing that I wanted.

Reilly T325D? Have had a Gradient for road and gravel for the last 4-5 years - thought about getting something more road-focussed a few times but the Gradient’s just too good!

That said, in Jan a mate was looking at an Escape so spent a great morning test riding things at Enigma. Properly lovely. Could’ve spent hours in the workshop 🙂

Ti Frame and deep rims you say ?

Ignore the wallpaper, the PX Ti frames are made by Waltly and are superb VFM. My only complaint would be that they aren't supplying Shimano groupsets ATM, so I bought the frame only and put the rest together mesel'

as @stevehine above i have a px spitfire also and loves it i have to admit.

https://jguillem.com/our-bikes

Beautiful frames. I've got an Atalaya, it's lovely

Reilly? Looked at their gravel frame a few years back and it was stunning. Road frames look nice on web, no idea about ride etc

Yes, Ribble have their issues at the moment

I missed this,what's going on?

They’re pretty much guaranteed to miss whatever delivery deadline they’ll put on a bike order, as well as some bikes having lead times well into the back end of this year. Mine was two months late.

If you read the submissions on Companies House they could appear to have financial issues to, but to me it just looks like holding companies dicking around.

Another Engima owner here. I've got an Etape with an Ultegra groupset, Hope wheels, headset and seat collar (nice bit of matching anodising). I've had it almost two years now and it makes me smile every time I ride it, which is at least twice a week. 🙂

I love my Ribble CGR Ti, it might be a bit overbuilt if you were purely using it as a road bike but it rides beautifully. I did order frame-only to avoid component-related delays and it arrived within a week (last summer, may be different now but the website does list stock availability/dates):

[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52702126781_c964d62d1d_b.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52702126781_c964d62d1d_b.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2oi7bbi ]cgr[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/94816327@N08/ ]James Fabian[/url], on Flickr

[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52702126766_b0b44ed02e_b.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52702126766_b0b44ed02e_b.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2oi7bb3 ]cgr2[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/94816327@N08/ ]James Fabian[/url], on Flickr

Have an Enigma Echo fixed wheel road bike and a Charge Freezer Ti cross bike. Also had a Merlin Cyrene. The Enigma is beautifully made. For UK sourced, you can't go wrong with Enigma. But you also can't mention Ti without Litespeed, Moots and Seven. A Moots RSL would be my dream road bike.

David Arthur just review a Moots on Youtube, it was stunning. but £12k.

I’ve had an Enigma Etape for a few years and it’s my “magic carpet” bike. It really does soak up road buzz more than any other bike I’ve ridden but is still stiff enough that it flys when you put the power down. It’s the kind of bike that you can ride all day every day!

I have done some serious drooling over the options listed here. short list is Enigma Etape, Dolan ADX, Sonder Colibri - all integra build, Dolan and sonder around £3K, Enigma etape £4.5k -(spa dont do C2W vouchers) hmmmm....

Where are you based? Even if you've got bike fit data, sitting on the bike in a shop is a must at that price

Has anyone ever had a custom frame from Waltly?

Having had a ride on a PX Hurricane (made by Waltly), it rides so nicely and is beautifully made and really really good value when it's on sale. The only reason I haven't bought one already is that they don't make them large enough for me.

Hiya,

Just my two pence worth I'd avoid Ribble Ti at the moment, not because it's not a great bike. The company is dire to deal with. Their customer service is frankly pants. They supplied a GCR AL bike to my son and it's been a total pain with frame problems with Riv-nuts and parts, I'd avoid!. I also see plenty of people waiting months for their bikes. Plenty of other supplier out there at the moment so pick the one with the best customer service is always the best route.

Br
JeZ

Might be above budget but I'd like a Mason Aspect.

Mason Aspect

Purchased a PlanetX Hurricane in January for my new winter bike.Upgraded the wheels to Sribe Alloy race D and swapped the tyres out to some Hutchinson tubeless, saving 500g. Very happy with it. Not sure if it’s the titanium frame or the 28mm tyres (normally run 25’s) but find it a very nice ride.
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Only one of the Ti road bikes shown above is 'nice', all of the others have disc brakes... which aren't needed on the road and make a Ti framed bike weigh near 20lbs. IMO. YMMV and all that.

@bjj.Andy.w - any idea if you can fit 32s and mudguards on the hurricane?

Pictures looks like it might be tight if those are 28s

I've had a Sabbath AR2 for a year or so (warranty replacement for my cracked September).

It's a great bike, very pleased with it and love the upgrade to disc brakes. The frame comes with a 10 year warranty now, rather than lifetime.

Definitely worth a trip to Spa Cycles for a test ride of that's possible.

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Yes, Ribble have their issues at the moment

I missed this,what’s going on?

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I didn't want to get on the Ribble bashing previously as some late accounts weren't massively of concern to me, but I went to order an alloy gravel bike and the dispatch date had gone from sometime in 2023 to Nov 2024. It's now back at April 2023, but didn't inspire confidence, so I went elsewhere. YMMV.

Back to Ti lovelyness...

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Only one of the Ti road bikes shown above is ‘nice’, all of the others have disc brakes…

And gears! Here's mine...Brakes are Record Titanium too for extra coolness.

And gears!

To be fair, I do live in quite a hilly location, where even my 30 mile "flat" route has 500m of elevation change !

dc1988
Full Member
Has anyone ever had a custom frame from Waltly?

Having had a ride on a PX Hurricane (made by Waltly), it rides so nicely and is beautifully made and really really good value when it’s on sale. The only reason I haven’t bought one already is that they don’t make them large enough for me

I have, great company to deal with and the product more than met expectations.

And they emailed me during Covid lockdown 1 to make sure I was ok which was a nice touch.

Had a Planet X/On One Pickenflick as my road bike since early 2014. I think it is great. This early the tyre clearance is a bit limiting for knobblies but with 30mm tyres it is fine. No idea who made it.

I've got a colibri ti, as my road bike. I considered getting another as a winter bike, I like it that much.

Sonder have been good to deal with so far. My next bike will probably be from them.

Completely forgot, but a mate has a Colina - no, I'd never heard of them either, but based in the Hope Valley. He really rates it.

https://www.colinabikes.com/

PX Tempest here too that I've adapted for the road. Hope wheelset, carbon seatpost etc.its my go to bike 3/4 of the year. Only in the summer do I ride the expensive carbon Roady.
Two years later and it just whirls along. Love it.

I had a Lynskey R270 until I was knocked off it and it got damaged. It was a great bike but max 28c wheels and no UK distributor now. I did alot of searching and wanted a UK frame if possible. That led me to Enigma and I had a custom Echelon made. I love it. Enigma were great to deal with and put up with my (largely unnecessary) minor tweaks! It'll go up to 35c and is supremely comfortable despite remaining quite racey in feel. We went for a slightly shorter top tube so that I can keep the stem length sensible as I get older and less flexi..

View this post on Instagram

plunked for the enigma etape ultegra.....

👍 A nice uncluttered look.
How long will you have to wait?

jimdubleyou
Full Member
@bjj.Andy.w – any idea if you can fit 32s and mudguards on the hurricane?

Pictures looks like it might be tight if those are 28s

It’d be tight but doable I’d imagine. I’m running Kinesis Fend Off Road Bike Mudguards that are able to take up to 30mm tyres.

endoverend
Full Member
Only one of the Ti road bikes shown above is ‘nice’, all of the others have disc brakes… which aren’t needed on the road and make a Ti framed bike weigh near 20lbs. IMO. YMMV and all that.

Yeah I get what you’re saying. I much prefer the look of a rim braked roadbike and after nearly 500miles on the Hurricane in all weathers I don’t think the discs are a game changer. The only reason I moved over to discs was I was destroying a set of rims every winter (I do a lot of miles in hilly Lancashire) I’m hoping my disc wheelset should last much longer.

endoverend
Full Member
Only one of the Ti road bikes shown above is ‘nice’, all of the others have disc brakes… which aren’t needed on the road and make a Ti framed bike weigh near 20lbs.

That’s utter bobbins.

Having owned 5 Ti road/gravel bikes, 2 Litespeed, 1 Kinesis and 2 Planet X, none of them, even the gravel bikes have been over 18lbs and only 1 of them had rim brakes.

My current Litespeed with 40mm tyres and Di2 is 17.4lbs in a large frame size.

Yes, hydraulics are heavier, but they allow for bigger tyres and also lighter rims. My current 30mm deep 30mm wide rims are only 320g.

Enigma Echo owner here as well, had it since 2016, its been faultless, comfy and TBH I can't see myself changing it.

I'm not in the market for a £2.5k bike but still drooling over tha Spa. Like the tyre clearance and wide choice of gearing.

Talking weights my current winter bike for local use is a Spa Steel tourer. I weighed it last week in ready to ride mode with mudguards, rear rack, one small pannier, lock, pump, toolkit, lights, and bell.

17.1kg. Though that is now down 500g after I switched from a suspension seat post (fitted when I was having back problems) to a normal post.

Has anyone ever had a custom frame from Waltly?

Yes, a couple of mine are on the Waltly site - fatbike and 29+. Very easy to deal with in comparison to XACD who I’ve also bought from and the quality of work is better / less workmanlike. Not sure they’re doing one-off custom frames anymore - only for existing customers.

Only one of the Ti road bikes shown above is ‘nice’, all of the others have disc brakes… which aren’t needed on the road

They're not *needed*, but they do brake more consistently in the wet, brake significantly better if you have carbon rims, save rim wear on expensive wheels, allow you to run bigger tyres, don't overheat rims on long descents, don't collect as much crud in winter, play a lot more nicely with mudguards...