Titus Rockstar Carbon 29er

The El Guapo Ancho handlebar is massive. There’s no mistaking this thing for a classic narrow XC race bar… unless you put two old bars together side by side! 76 CM!! I mentioned that it was wider than some of my doorways in my house and I wasn’t kidding! The ride on these were a little odd at first; you sort of have to channel your inner gorilla, unless you actually do want to cut them down, in which case they have lots of room to do so – some 235mm per side. They initially reminded me of steering my wheelbarrow, and on switchbacks, that slow turning did have me questioning the width, almost as much as when the trail got tight between two trees and I had to do a little rocker manoeuvre to get through the gap. I can see why they spec such a versatile bar but think that, unless you spend most of your days descending on fairly wide open flowing trails, taking a little off both ends won’t hurt.

Titus Rockstar’s El Guapo Ancho handlebar “is massive”

So how does the Rockstar handle? For the most part, great! That stiff full carbon frame takes a bit of the buzzy edge off when riding on the trail. Powering up climbs there is no lateral flex that I could detect. The handling was predictable as far as steering goes, it was a bit slow for my type of riding; this can easily be addressed by changing the front shock to 85mm mode from the standard 100mm, which also steepens the head tube angle slightly and creates a little tighter turning experience.

Dan in his Miller Paints Team Kit aboard the Titus Rockstar Carbon 29er

Race Day

I had a 6 hour endurance XC race that consisted of 7 mile laps at a local ski resort. Seemed like the perfect opportunity to see the Rockstar shine… especially after my own trusty mountain bike decided to be not-so-trusty… After the rider’s briefing, we lined up and I felt good about what the day may hold; the sun was shining, the trails were a perfect not-quite-damp but not dusty, and the scenery on Mt. Hood is just absolutely gorgeous!

The start was in the parking area of the ski resort. Out of the gate, the bike jumped when I kicked and we fell in line with the pack as we headed to the first turn. The hard right caused the wide field to compress and string out a bit which was just as well because we immediately went from wide open concrete to dropping into the forest trail with a hard left through a tight 6-foot wide gap in the trees. After that, it was single and double track time.

Dan and the Titus in action