Jim’s Titanium Gravel Bike
Comfort, speed, and a little bling.
Today’s “gravel“ bikes exist on a spectrum between go-fast builds destined for races like the Oregon Triple Crown or Unbound on one end and full-on adventure rigs for long hauls in the middle of nowhere. My ideal gravel frame sits somewhere in the middle of those to extremes - a liminal space, if you will. I can build a frame optimized for either end of the spectrum but a versatile frame is best for most riders.
Jim’s frame is on paper very similar to mine, but he’s built it up more on the go-fast side as opposed to my more adventure-oriented build. To that end, I adjusted the geometry to accommodate his fit data and riding style. I also changed up the chain stay arrangement to allow for larger chainrings and fully internal cable routing. This decreased the tire clearance slightly, but the frame will still comfortably clear 50mm 700c tires or 2.25” 650b tires, with fenders over either.
I also tweaked the tubing diameters to better match the smaller frame size and add some compliance. This saved a little weight as well, bringing the grand total with sliders and thru-axle to just over three pounds.
The build components also kept the overall system weight down. Jim has a really nice parts bin to draw from with Bontrager carbon wheels and a carbon stem and seatpost from Enve and Ergon, respectively. I brought in the standard White Industries bits and drivetrain components from SRAM’s XPLR group.
You may have noticed that this frame has a lot (15!) of bottle bosses on it. Most of these will be used to mount a full frame bag from Kaibab Customs that ought to be finished just in time for this bike to go up to Portland for the MADE bike show.