Tested: Titus Racer-X 29

WHAT: Titus Racer-X 29
WHREE: titusti.com
HOW MUCH: $2,595, (frame and rear shock)

“This is a cool bike. If I didn’t know any different, I wouldn’t have thought this was a 29er.” Dain is a lean kid. He likes to race, likes bikes light and fast and snappy and is not a big fan of 29-inch wheels. And those words, uttered from his mouth after spinning this Titus Racer-X 29 around the office, were the first nice things he had ever said about big wheels. By that token, those words constitute pretty high praise for this full custom, titanium-front-triangle, aluminum-rear-end, Horst-linked, 3-inch travel, stratospherically priced race weapon. As well they should, because this is a mighty impressive bike.

The custom bike elves at Titus tore up the existing page on 29-inch bike design and started with a clean sheet of paper. Rather than steepening the head angle, tucking the chainstays in as short as humanly possible and trying to maintain wheelbases sort of close to those of 26-inch-wheel bikes, as is the current norm on most 29-inch bikes, Titus instead ran the head angle on this beast at a casual 70.8 degrees, and jammed the seat angle to a hammer-happy 74 degrees. They are held apart on our test bike by a rangy 24-inch effective toptube, and the chainstays run out 18 inches behind the bike. The result is a loooong 44.38-inch-wheelbase bike. Dressed as she is, our test bike hit the scales at a lean 25.2 pounds.

Despite the lightweight and spindly look, the Titus is exceptionally well put together. The rectangular alloy swingarm rides on four cartridge bearings, while the Horst-link uses stout bushings at the rear dropout. A threepiece carbon fiber linkage attaches to the seatstays and seat tube, further stiffening the chassis. Bump absorption duties are handled by a Fox RP3 air shock. For a lightweight race-oriented design, its lateral stiffness and chassis integrity is very impressive.

If one were to go by current thinking, by looking at the numbers without actually swinging a leg over this bike, one would assume that it would be lazy handling and slow steering. One couldn’t be more wrong in this instance. The design puts the rider smack dab between the wheels, lending a sensation of being “in” the bike rather than “on top” of it, and the handling is precise, nimble and rock solid. The suspension works efficiently and without complaint. Saying this bike is a good handling 29er is a disservice. The Racer-X 29 is a phenomenal-handling machine, regardless of what kind of wheels you are used to riding. It is equally at home in the air as it is on the ground, which is not something I can say about many 29-inch bikes at all, and for being a lightweight racer, the chassis tracks at high speed with surefooted confidence and stability, while sacrificing nothing in the switchbacks. It is a race/trail bike to lust after.

Lust, however, comes with a price. In this case, the price is such that it might involve donating organs or selling children into slavery or robbing liquor stores. A whole lot of liquor stores. But this is a really, really good bike. Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.