{"id":961,"date":"2010-03-22T10:23:02","date_gmt":"2010-03-22T18:23:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mxi2000.net\/mudworm\/?p=961"},"modified":"2017-02-06T17:51:44","modified_gmt":"2017-02-07T01:51:44","slug":"titus-ftm-carbon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mxi2000.net\/mudworm\/2010\/03\/titus-ftm-carbon","title":{"rendered":"MTB: My Ultimate Trail Bike — 2010 Titus FTM Carbon"},"content":{"rendered":"

Finally, the search came to an end, and I am now the proud owner of this beautiful small carbon 2010 Titus FTM (short for Full Tilt Moto).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/center>For the past year or so, I have considered nearly a dozen bikes and test ridden a handful (see my earlier post<\/a>). I almost bought a Santa Cruz Blur LTc<\/strong> (see another post<\/a>). In the end, I went with the FTM<\/strong> for its bottle cage mount among other features (more on those later).<\/p>\n

Bike Searching<\/h1>\n

I started my bike searching more than a year ago, which had two earlier posts to prove: In Search of the Perfect Bike<\/a> and Oh, I think I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m in love\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/a> .<\/p>\n

As you can see in that second post, I was pretty excited about getting a Santa Cruz Blur LTc<\/strong>. In February 2010, I started spec’ing out components. It was taking me forever. You’ll understand why if you take a look on competitivecyclist.com at the options provided for each individual component! I was pulling hair out by the handful just trying to figure out what stem I wanted. Just then, Titus<\/strong> sneaked in a demo weekend in Santa Cruz. Erik had read about their new FTM and urged me to go check it out. I went by myself. There was only the Aluminum version for the small FTM (discrimination!!!). Disappointed, but not wanting to waste a trip, I checked it out. After a short ride at De Laveaga park where the trails were still wet from the rain before, I called Erik on my drive home, “I’m in trouble!” We canceled our plan to go to Fairfax for a Turner demo and instead returned to Santa Cruz the next day. I played on the Aluminum FTM while Erik rode a carbon FTM and an El Guapo. He came back saying “I want one each.” Now, we are in real trouble! Fortunately, he was half joking because he had not made up his mind if he wanted a 29er, but he confirmed that the carbon FTM could make a great bike for me.<\/p>\n

I got a small carbon FTM (I think it was the first one of that size ever assembled) to test ride on my favorite trails in Henry Coe (ride report<\/a>). Again, the bike did not disappoint. I even got ahold of\u00c2\u00a0 Santa Cruz Blur LTc, in both small and medium, to test ride back to back with the FTM. I had to make a hard decision between a small FTMc <\/strong>and a medium LTc<\/strong> (both have a similar top tube length). They are very efficient on gradual climbs and stable on descents, but they both have their own personalities. I feel LTc is a little more playful, meaning that I was able to move the bike under me more at ease, while FTMc feels just a tad more predictable on short bursts of steep hill climbs. In the end, it was the nuances that helped me make up my mind:<\/p>\n