Last Saturday, the sky was blue.....but who cares?...
You do if you ride at Puncak mountain that saturday....plus you were riding a blue Titus Moto-Lite, with blue Race-Face crank, blue Fizik Gobi Saddle, and blue Lizard Skin chainstay protector.....well, guess what's your favorite color?
Let's talk about the bike, shall we?
Overall, the bike was awesome. It's light, got 5 inch of travel at both wheels, did not feel like a "wet noodle", plus minimum bob during long uphill - with steady crank RPM. Steady pedalling is required for this kind of design - the venerable horst link. It is amazing that this design actually derived from AMP bikes way back in early 90's.
My first full-suspension bike was Mongoose AMPlifier which was manufactured by AMP Research based on their B-3 model. It was on sale as frame only at Jenson USA for $700 in 1997. It was the lightest full-suspension XC bike in it's price range. However it only has 2,5" travel at rear wheel & less than 2" of travel in front (using the infamous AMP F-2 Parallelogram fork). I didn't have any complain with the bike, though. It was light, fast and perfect. However I snapped the RD hanger and guess what......it was not replaceable...*sigh*Now the patent belong to Specialized, and they called it FSR design. Titus perfected this design by adding an additional link at the shock and utilizing box-shaped stays, which improves lateral rigidity and add more travel because of leverage ratios. Therefore it wouldn't behave like a "wet noodle" during sprint & heavy braking but still very plush.
It still retain it's original traits, which is separating wheel movement with pedalling effects. Therefore theoritically it wouldn't produce "bobbing" at all. But compared to currently popular design like VPP or Giant's Maestro, I'd say it still moves a little bit under pedalling. But it also more active and supple. Well, you can't have it all, can you?Since both wheel has 5 inches, it gave me more confidence in eating up the loose rocks at Puncak single tracks. Furthermore the track was dry, so plenty of traction from the Kenda Nevegal tyres.
Would I ride it in my next puncak adventure? You bet!! But it's gonna have to wait until fasting month is over. Since for next Saturday ride (the last one before entering fasting month) I've decided to ride on my Giant Anthem.
