Titus
99' Quasi Moto frame set

I have never own anything with this kind of travel. 7" in the front and 5.9" in the back. This is a '99 frame. I think the frame has seen better days under the pilot of the previous owner. She is not what I would call, in "As New" condition. But when you look at how beefy the frame is, how thick is the welding and how strong everything is, then you won't have doubt about the frame at all.

The bike is being set up with long travel front and rear, heavy duty freeride components. The only thing separate her to a pure DH bike is the triple chain ring in the front.

Upon recieving the bike, I changed out the chain immediately since they are crap, adjust the front derailluer to make it shifts (which took me like 5 min), cleaned the bike a little bit and replaced the 2 shock mount bolts w/ 2 grade 12.9 steel bolts. (But the problem is they will rust, I am still trying to get some strong bolts and won't rust) Here is a list of items thats going to go:

• '00 Boxxer --> '01 Mazocchi Z1 MCR
• WTB momentum headset --> black Christ King (what else?! haha)
• handle bar --> Easton EA70 flat
• wheelset rebuild --> REAL disc + black 317 + 14g spokes, brass nipples
• Control Tech CNC stem --> Profile stem (keep the Control Tech as my other option)
• Hayes Disc brakes --> Avid mechanical + Ultimate Levers (no bleed, no bump up, no leak)
• short Thomson seatpost --> long Thomson seatpost (keep the short one for my other option)

07/30/01 update

I just come back from a North Star, Lake Tahoe trip with this bike. Boyyyyyyyy ... comparing to my last trip to North Star w/ my FSR XC S-WORK, this is ... what? That's not a fair comparsion. (Titus QM vs. Specialized FSR XC, freeride vs. XC, 7" front 5.9" rear vs. 2.8" front 3" rear), you do the math ... hehe~ On the Titus QM, people around me seems to be riding slower though, hehe ... ;-) (except for those REAL DHer, I am no DHer and I freak out on EVERYTHING, so they can kick my butt on any day)

Still haven't realize any of the upgrades yet, but planning ... (and waiting for my bank account to grow a little before I can let it all out again ... haha)

08/10/01 update

Ride some more after the North Star trip, adjust some more ... discovered some more problems. The cage of the XTR rear derailluer is a little bent, it will rub against the spokes when I put it on small chain ring and biggest cog. Luckily, I got a '98 XT 8-speed rr. I replaced 1 polly from the XT with the XTR (the other one was busted already) and planning on running the XT 8-speed on my 9 speed system. I asked around and it should be just fine. I am also going to replace the shifter cables in the process.
My new '01 Mazocchi Z1 MCR will be here any minute. I can't wait to put that on my bike, along with a couple of new components (Kings headset, real hub + 317 rims, new set of black hayes disc brake, etc).

09/05/01 update

Finally, the bike is on her wheels again. Very much different from the previous setup. I like it better with 5" up front and lost some weight. Still doing some break-in and adjustment. But I am happy for far. No list of complain yet. I have updated the component list. I may change something if I am not happy with the set up.

09/09/01 update

After the first real dirt road experience, she put a smile on my face. Things are not entirely broken in yet, but already performs very well. I set up the Marzocchi Z1 MCR with zero perload and was trying to let it run through it's break in period. It does a great job of leveling all the bumps. And the Avid mech disc brakes can be better, but I would say they are as good as my old pair of Vs. I will give it some more time to break in. It was just a pretty smooth fireroad. A lot of ups, and then down ("What goes up must come down" theory). It gave me a ball park idea of how the bike will be ... I can't wait to try the bike when everything is broken in, w/ the correct preload front and rear plus the correct tire pressure ... haha~ The last thing, I've finally ordered a black Thomson seatpost, 27.2 x 330mm, zero offset. Along with the order, I finally picked up a pair of aluminium rim saver (which means a schrader rim to work with presda tubes). These should round up my Titus mtb project. I wonder what's next ... hehe~ ;-)

09/13/01 update

I have experienced some problem with the rear brake cable. The housing is just a little too short. The compression of the rear linkage cause too much housing moving around, I should have put more zip tie to prevent it from moving around too much. I re-do the housing a little and put a extra zip tie on it. From initial testing, the cable isn't moving too much. More testing will be done.
Other than that, everything seems to be working great. The brakes are breaking in, and I am experiencing more and more braking power. And I am at the stage of try to get used to the increase braking power and trying to get the right lever feel.
And I've finally snaped a shot of the new complete bike. Here is side by side with the old setup:

Before	After

Here is the current spec.