29er Bike Review:Titus RockStar

At Sea Otter 2010, I got  chance to meet a couple of the Titus guys and saw the Titus RockStar on display at the Titus team trailer. Like the name or not, the RockStar is a great looking bike that 29eronline really wanted to test. Arrangements were made and we received a size medium Titus RockStar. For a build report and initial thoughts follow this link. Unfortunately, with the Titus brand somewhat in limbo after being foreclosed on and sold to the British company On-One Bikes, the future of the Rockstar is up in the air. Click here for more details;Titus Ti USA

Don’t feel like reading – check out our video review at the bottom of this article.

In addition, to our normal group of testers, Donn O. spent a considerable amount of time on the Rockstar, so his impressions were given special weight in the review.

What is it for?

The RockStar, while having a race background stemming from the Titus Racer X, is really designed to be a everyday trail bike. If you want to do some endurance races, it is designed to work well, but the angles are relaxed enough and there is enough suspension travel to be an all day, daily rider for most enthusiast riders. This was the intention of Titus when designing the RockStar – keep reading see how well we think they did.

Camye at San Lee

Geometry
The geometry struck us as very user friendly. Donn O seemed almost disappointed that he didn’t get to test the durability of the carbon rear triangle with an endo at his favorite rock garden; “The fact I cleaned two runs thru the rocks on a strange bike says a lot about the handling / steering / geometry of this bike – it is spot on.”

This appreciation for the geometry did not extend to the bottom bracket. On many log crossing (and climbing, cornering pedaling on the flat sections of trail etc….) the testers and I ran into problems with bottom bracket clearance. It felt exceptionally low. None of us at 29eronline understand why companies are insisting on spec’ing bikes with really low bottom brackets. I have never had a test rider that did not complain to me about low bottom brackets. I have, conversely, never had a tester comment negatively about a bottom bracket being too high. The Titus was no exception and worse in this aspect than many. All the testers ended up settling on the longer fork travel (we installed the TALAS fork that is adjustable to either 100mm or 120mm), which raises the bottom bracket. Even then, we all wished for a slightly higher bottom bracket

Climbing

Just pedal, and, with minor weight changes, the Titus is a very well mannered climber. The relaxed head angle and average length chainstays made keeping the front end down a mindless task. This was true even with the fork set at 120mm.

The Titus pedals very firmly. Donn O and Camye , who are both light, felt that it bobbed, so they turned the pro-pedal on. That said, I and most of the other testers felt it pedaled firmly and the bobbing was not very noticeable, if at all.

A complaint that came up frequently was that the climbing traction, especially for a 4 inch travel bike, was not very good. The suspension did not seem to facilitate digging in while climbing, except when you could hit a bump hard enough to get the rear wheel to break into it’s travel. Overall, it felt like a hardtail as far as traction.

Descending

The geometry is hard to find fault with while going downhill – the bike is a very capable descender, and very stable.  We did, however, find fault with the suspension when it came to descending. It needed to be tuned plusher as it felt like far less then 4 inches of travel. Donn O: “I was feeling back pain just 6 miles into a ride”. Not what a suspension engineer wants to hear!
This is definitely not my favorite bike for getting airborne. On the plus side, bottoming out was nearly impossible to do on this bike

Overall
The Titus felt like it wanted to be a race bike, but the geometry told a completely different story. On the flip side, the geometry was leaning towards a trail bike, but the suspension was too race tuned to make it a day in and day out rider. Our hard tail fans were fine with the stiffness of the suspension, but our trail riders were left confused as to its purpose. I would recommend tuning the shock a bit plusher for small bump sensitivity with a more linear mid-stroke that would allow it to use its suspension more effectively. For the guys that want a stiffer ride, there is always pro-pedal. However, it just can’t live up to it’s full potential as a trail bike tuned so firmly. The stiffness of the suspension tuning also caused climbing traction to be sacrificed, which is one of the largest performance gains of running a full suspension bike.

We all really liked the geometry, except the low bottom bracket. The slack angles worked really well. If the bottom bracket was higher, we would have had no problem with a 4 inch fork. However, the low bottom bracket kept us constantly aware of every move we made. We do not feel there was any advantage to the low bottom bracket for our trails.

The Titus stayed in good working order overall. All the pivots did loosen up, but after snugging up the bolts, there were no more problems. The frame was adequately stiff for its intended use and the front end was actually as stiff as anything on the market. The carbon rear end added a nice muffled ride quality that could be appreciated. Coupled with the 4 inches of travel it could really be a great combination if it had a properly tuned rear suspension.

The Titus is a solid bike for the right rider. Who is the right rider? A hardtail convert that is looking for the edge to be taken off of trail chatter. One who wants a bit of cushion on hard hits but will maintain good riding form and not rely on suspension to pull them through difficult trails. Someone who wants to stay connected to the trail but needs a bit more comfort combined with bomb-proof handling.

Buy A Titus RockStar

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