Author: Cris Bloomfield

You won’t find a Ti Cross Deluxe listed on the Independent Fabrication website. It’s not a production model. It’s an invention of my imagination and the desire to create a bike for hacking through winter out of a mountain bike frankensteined to a load of cross bike bits. I am very grateful to both my friends Tim Johnson at Sideways Cycles (the original UK Independent Fabrication Importer) and Simon Barnes (Bike Shak, Altrincham) who did a bit of leg work for me on new bike options and parts.

In the end a fellow IF enthusiast, Jam Price (of Worcester Cycle Centre), parted with one of his fleet which ticked all the boxes. So a raw titanium Deluxe frame set was coupled to a pair of Pace rigid carbon forks with a Green Chris King Headset. An eBay sourced second hand 105 equipped Merida cross bike provided everything except a chainset and pedals. Jam also provided a Chris King based wheel set which will also be destined for this bike eventually once they’re related onto suitable rims.

It’s not light (about 22lbs) but feels totally solid when you put the pedals down and crank out some power. I’m looking forwards to getting some riding in this winter.

I’ve rarely written an end of year summary, but 2016 was important because its was really the year I (psychologically speaking) really started riding again. I got back on the bike in April and gradually ramped up the riding and sustained it for the rest of the year. I found a colleague at work who was like minded and we clocked up a good mix of road and off road routes.

As the year closes Strava tells me I’ve clocked up 96 hours riding, covering 2,145km over 147 rides. That’s not to say every ride was recorded often taking the kids to school in the trailer and picking them up again didn’t get captured but sometimes it did. I don’t care about those not being captured.

Back in November I rode out with an old friend who I know through Singletrack, Alex Leigh. He introduced me to some decent riding and a pre and post ride drinking culture in the blended edge that exists between the Malverns and the Forest of Dean. It was a highlight of the year. Alex also introduced to relive.cc and have occasionally enjoyed looking at some of the recorded routes.

Last year I reduced bike numbers selling my beautiful IF Planet Cross in Aquamarine fade. I rode all my other bikes over the course of the year, the Remedy has needed some love (and still needs the forks servicing) and the Ti Deluxe too. After well over 2,000km the Ti Crown Jewel needed a new chain and the Singlespeed just ploughed on often with the kids in tow. As winter came I knew it was time for a winter hack. After riding the Ti Deluxe a bit, I decided the sensible solution was another Cross Bike.

It’s late autumn rolling into winter setting the backdrop for the updated bike.

So after hammering it around over the summer, I decided that it was time to invest some love in the Titanium Deluxe. This bike still ticks boxes, but the game has moved on and it was due some upgrades.

Back in the day the Magura Marta SL Gold editions were an awesome set of brakes, but Hope have in my view set the modern standard with their new race-spec brakes. So it was time to get some of those on with appropriate Ti fasteners.

The Fox floats had started leaking out of the compression adjuster at the bottom of the leg. They need a service and will find a new home on the Rockhopper, but I wanted the security of the QR15 setup that makes so much sense so upgraded to some new forks, had the tapered steerer replaced with a straight 1 1/8th and bought the bits to convert the Chris King hub.

Took a while to get all the bits ordered and the work complete, but it’s all done now ready to ride!

Old cockpit

Rear end before upgrade

Chris King Disc Hub

Chris Rowe’s paintwork still looking good…

Insanely expensive new bits for the hub

New brakes

Anti-rattle measures

New callipers and pinstripe tape

Throughout the English-speaking world ‘gnat’ is usually reserved for small, biting flies, allied to mosquitoes but most of the groups for which British entomologists have used the word do not bite. Note that the only groups of British Diptera which ‘bite’ (and only female flies do so) are species of Culicidae (mosquitoes), Scatopsidae (blackflies), ceratopogonidae (biting-midges), Tabanidae (horseflies) and Muscidae (houseflies and allies). In some parts of the world Ceratopogonidae are called ‘no-see-ums’ because females are small, do not whine like mosquitoes, and attack en masse, producing a large number of suppurating spots.

Little buggers got me good tonight at Hamsterley Forest. Gnats. Millions of ’em.

This week I rode the road bike for the first time in a year. Felt good to get out on something fast but the handling takes a bit of getting used to.

After a bit of a shake down over a few days riding, I fitted some new tyres as the Schwalbe Ultimos that came on the Ksyriums had started to crack. After that I decided it was time for new tread and to move up to 25mm. Not sure there is any advantage in the bigger size – 2mm isn’t a lot.

The jury is out on the Mavic Yksion replacements

Bled the brakes over the weekend, front is bang on but the rear is still holding some air and needs bleeding for a third time. Realised once I arrived back in the North East I’d left my biking shoes at home, so ended up riding all week in trainers. Fortunately I hadn’t taken the trail pedals off yet so it wasn’t too bad. Feeling a bit better on the bike this week, last week was a wake up call.

Started riding again, commuting to work initially with plans to do some variations over the summer to take in some of the County Durham trails. The Ti Deluxe is being ridden again for the first time in years. Week one was interesting as both brakes needed bleeding and until the kit arrived to do it, I was on rapid brake pumping to get any speed reduction.

The trails in the photo below are less than a minute from my office. The local riding is superb as are the views:

Decided it was time for some new kit. Since moving back to SPDs from Crank Bros I have been a set down, so the XTR trail pedals will be going back on the Singlespeed and I’ll keep the Ti Deluxe more XCey. My Specialised BG Pro shoes have a few holes in now and little rubber sole left. New Specialized use the crappy nylon lacing system I hate and since I have been impressed with my Mavic road shoes, the new disco slippers are French too.

I have been thinking of some new shades for a while and seeing as the lenses of my Pro M Frames are now pretty wrecked, I thought I’d go back to Racing Jackets for a bit. The next generation are new to me. The Prizm lens are pretty good in the woods.

In terms of rubbish excuses they don’t get much worse than trying to blame your dad for getting busted for cheating in cycling. That is exactly what Belgian rider Femke van den Driessche has done which is a bit of a shocker. Full story at the BBC. To me the rubbish lie is almost worse than the relevation that UCI commissaires found a motor found in her cyclocross bike. The rumours have been there for years, but it’s now apparent that rider aids are definitely in use and the sport has another area to police and try and catch the cheats… .