Since starting mountain biking in the late 1980s I'd always lusted after titanium bikes, and deciding that after 15 years of riding the same rigid XC bike it was time for a change to a hardtail with disc brakes, I thought it had to be titanium this time.
There were rational reasons too, I wanted this to be a frame for life so the lack of corrosion or fatigue help with that compared to steel, aluminium or carbon fibre. Plus the supposed shock absorbing qualities meant that if designed properly, it should give a smoother ride than other materials.
Weeks of research later I'd found a multitude of titanium frame suppliers all over the world. Rulint out the long travel fork frames and those with geometries too different to my old bike, plus the ridiculously expensive (but no doubt very nice) well known US companies shortened the list considerably. The consistently positive reviews for all of Justin's types of frames, and the fact that they are all fully custom, swung it for me, plus being in the UK and fairly close by helped.
After emailing him the dimensions of my old bike and visiting Harwich a few weeks later to discuss exactly what I was after, we decided on some minor tweaks to the frame including suitable adjustments for short travel suspension forks. An inspection of a frame he had there showed they were very well made, so I placed my order.
I've been riding the bike for a while now and its ended up exactly how I wanted, something that feels almost identical to my old bike (which I still use) with the added comfort of suspension forks and what seems to be a less harsh back end, but without losing the precise handling of an XC bike. Other than the controls being different, swapping between the two bikes hasn't been a problem which was important as I wanted them to feel as similar as possible.
I certainly look forward to the next 15 years of riding with this bike!
