Titus Motolite 2 Reviewed

Our tester Dave Llewellyn has been riding bikes pretty much his whole life and knows a thing or two about riding.  He got a chance to test our ML2 for a month or so and here are some of his thoughts.  In this review, he compares the Ellsworth Epihany to the Titus ML2. 

Intro

Before I begin my review of the Titus Motolite II, I would like to introduce my self and give a bit of background.  I am 33 years old and have been a passionate (some would say obsessed) mountain biker for over 20 years.  I like to ride hard on challenging terrain with lots of technical climbing.  I never really cut it as an expert-level racer so now I just ride a lot, year round (I have been known to say that winter is my favorite riding season).  I generally do one 24-hour team relay every year to feed my competitive side.  I really enjoy the punishing rocks of Hilton Falls and I have a dedicated bike for that type of environment. I have also dabbled in trials (too many broken bones) and use those skills frequently on the trail (my friends call me Hopper).  I also do a lot of road/trail commuting to work…taking the long way of course.

Last summer I began looking for a new trail bike.  I needed a do-everything bike that could handle everything from road/trail commutes, hard club rides, all-day epics to the odd race.   I was looking for something with about 5” of rear travel, preferably with a Horst-Link design and could be built up in the 27-28 lb range.  This was going to be my first new bike in more than 10 years and I was looking for something pretty special, without totally breaking the bank.

I quickly narrowed the choices to a handful of bicycles including Devinci Remix, Giant Reign, Norco Fluid and a few others.  Then I stumbled upon the Titus Motolite and I was instantly hooked…its specs seemed to fit me perfectly.   In addition, the Motolite had an excellent reputation and an extremely loyal following.  Furthermore, Titus has the ‘sex appeal’ of a boutique brand but was considerably cheaper than its competitors.  The Motolite instantly moved to the top of my list.  After all, what could be better? 

Then Fate intervened and I came across another bike that I hadn’t given any thought to, the Ellsworth Epiphany.  The deal that I had stumbled upon was simply too good to pass up. So after some frenzied research (the reviews were all awesome) I went for it, without even testing the bike.  Oh my, what a ride it has been!  I have been mountain biking now for over 20 years, and I never dreamed that I would love riding a bike as much as the Epiphany. 

While I have been extremely happy with my bike, I couldn’t help wondering how the Motolite would stack up…a little bit of the ‘grass is always greener’ phenomenon I suppose.  Anyway, then Fate intervened again and dealt me another trump card…the chance for an extended test-ride on the Titus Motolite II!!!!  What an opportunity.

The Motolite is the most versatile frame in the Titus lineup and it and is offered in several versions to satisfy most end-users.  These include the standard all aluminum version, the Motolite II which has carbon seatstays, a titanium frame and the high-zoot Exogrid model where carbon fiber is fused into titanium skeleton…very sexy. 

The Frame

Weld quality appears to be very good.  The MLII that I tested came in a lime green finish which I initially thought was a little bright but once you get it in the forest it blends in perfectly with the trees.  The massive downtube is biovalized (vertically at the head-tube and horizontally at the bottom bracket); presumably to increase weld area as well optimize stiffness.  The frame design is a simple Horst-link with the rear chainstay pivot located slightly lower than the dropout. This is a proven design which Titus licenses from Specialized who have a patent on the design. Titus gave the ML 2 positions for the lower shock mount giving you the option for either 4 or 5” travel settings.  Multiple travel settings has the potential to enhance the bikes overall versatility. Cable routing is also sensibly routed on the underside of the top tube.  Since the seat tube is un-interrupted, there are no compromises on front derailleur set-up or limits on seatpost extension.  The short tube that braces the front of the seat tower acts as a very convenient handle if you ever have to carry the bike. 

According to online forums the medium MLII frame and shock weighs about 6.5 lbs vs 5.5 lbs for the Epiphany.  However, this ML has been built up with pretty light components, especially the fork and wheels and actually comes in a full pound lighter than the Epi at about 27 lbs (very respectable).  Geometry-wise the ML and Epi are almost identical with the top tube length being the one notable difference.  A slightly longer stem on the ML made up for shorter TT and gave an identical reach with a slightly more forward weight bias.  You can really see by the picture how similar the bikes were set up.  The ML seemed to fit perfectly, feeling almost exactly the same as the Epi on my first ride (around the neighborhood).  I definitely prefer the looks of the ML.  I think its because the shock is in line with the seat-stays, giving it a cleaner, almost hardtail look. 

Componentry

The bike was well outfitted with a mix of good-quality components.  Fox took care of the suspension with a 140 TALAS RLC fork and a RP23 shock.  I will come back to the suspension a little later….Shifting duty was covered with SRAM X9 shifters and derailleurs mated to a Shimano XT crank/BB and cassette.  Shifting was stellar throughout the test; compliments to SRAM!  Since this bike was partially cobbled up out of spare parts the brakes were an odd mix of a 6” Avid Juicy 5 front and a Hope Mini rear brake with a rotor that measured about 5”.  It took some fiddling, but I was able to set the brakes up to have the same ‘feel’ at the lever.  The front brake was prone to the awful ‘turkey gobble’ that is common (and most annoying) to the Juicy line.  The, the wheels were also oddball with an XT x Mavic 819 front and a Chris King hub mated to an older Araya rim in the back.  The wheels worked fine but it turns out that I am one of the few mtn bikers that does NOT like the constant buzz of CK hubs.  In fact, I found myself purposely pedaling through sections that I would normally coast just to keep the buzzing noise at bay.  An ironic side-effect was that the CK hub actually made me faster!  The tires were 1.95 Kenda Nevegal Stickies.  I have been a Nevegal convert for over a year now with 2.1 DTC on my Epi and 2.35 Stickies on my Hilton bike (Kona Stinky).  I love these tires and the two different rubber compounds perfectly match the specific applications.  Check out Jack Pittens review of the nevegal line elsewhere on this site: http://www.spokewrench.com/spokewrench/2006/08/kenda_nevegal_d.html#more

I had figured that the 1.95 Stickies would probably have both similar climbing traction and rolling resistance as my 2.1 DTC’s, but be a tad lighter.  Well they may have been lighter but they did not seem to roll as fast and they were just too small for the trailbike application where they lacked sufficient climbing, cornering and braking traction and they were prone to pinchflats.  As a compromise I kept the front tire but swapped out the rear for the 2.1 that was on the front of my Epi for the rest of the test…now both bikes had identical tire combinations.

Dialing in the ride

I started reading everything I could about the Motolite (again) and this bike has a very large and loyal following based on the Titus forum on MTBR.com.  This forum is a very valuable resource and I used others’ set-up notes to initially dial in the suspension and other members were extremely helpful in responding to my questions. 

There were definitely some growing pains at the beginning of the test.  Initial setup was accomplished with a quick visit of the setup threads on the Titus forum on MTBR.com (http://forums.mtbr.com/forumdisplay.php?f=29).  Based on this information I set the pressure in the shock to 120 psi and dialed the rebound in a  few clicks from full fast.  It seemed like everyone on the forum was running their RP23’s without any platform damping, so I followed suit.  I set the shock to 60 psi for about an inch of sag in the 120 mm travel setting.  While the bike felt like it fitted perfectly from the outset, the actual initial ride quality was less than stellar.  In fact, my first real ride was a hammer session on the hilly terrain of Twin Ponds and I suffered a great deal at the hands of my riding partner.  This was doubly disturbing since I had been schooling him on our recent hammer session (daddy duty was putting a real damper on his training).  The bike just felt harsh and hard to control.  It chattered over bumps,lost traction on the climbs (I was walking hills that I usually cruise up) and I was getting the crap beaten out of me by the bike. I just couldn’t hang with the guy and it wasn’t me, I was feeling strong, it was the bike…. 

Back home I did some deeper investigation into the setup.  I also posted a note on the Titus forum describing my less than stellar first ride impressions.  I used the expression that the bike ‘felt like my hardtail’ which several members took exception to.  Others took it as a genuine plea for help (which it was) and tried to help me dial in the ride. 

As it turns out, there were a number of factors that were killing the ride, not the least of which was the tires.  Swapping the 1.95 Nevegal Stickies to the 2.1 Nevegal DTCs made a world of difference.  I also lowered the shock pressure to about 105 psi (about 30% sag) which totally awakened the handling of the rear suspension.  Another big problem was the fork, which just felt bad.  I have never been a fan of air-sprung forks and the TALAS was unimpressive:  diving through its initial travel and then bottoming harshly.  Back in my garage I realized that I was only getting about 90 mm of travel.  Too much oil had been put into the damper at the factory which caused the fork to bottom out midway through its travel.  The phenomenon is called “hydraulic lockout” and I had some experience with this; having previously mistakenly over-filled the damper of an older Fox Vanilla fork.  The solution was easy….drain some oil out of the damper leg.  I also raised the pressure in the fork a little, up to 65 psi.  This reduced small bump sensitivity but helped control the tendency for the fork to eat quickly into its travel on moderate bumps.  I don’t want to rant on too long about the fork but I have a bone to pick with Fox’s acronym. TALAS stands for Travel Adjust Linear Air Spring.  The TA part is a thing of absolute beauty, I love the travel adjust system on this fork.  Linear Air Spring, however, is an oxymoron.  Compared with the travel of Fox coil forks that I am most used to, this fork had anything but linear travel.  It dove through much of its travel on smallish bumps, spiked harshly on larger hits and never fully used all of its travel.

As I was working on the bike it occurred to me that a good deal of the harsh chattering I had been feeling may be due the chain slapping on the right chainstay.  The chainstay did not have any sort of protector; which frankly seems a little odd on such a nice frame.   Some foam tape wrapped around the chainstay quieted things down significantly. 

Things went much, MUCH better after making these adjustments.  The bike came to life and finally rode like I knew that it could.  And ride it I did…a lot!  I had the bike for two whole months and rode it almost exclusively over that time.  Except for Hilton Falls, I rode this bike everywhere from commuting to work to 4-hour epics. 

Commuting

Speaking of commuting, I seem to do a lot of that type of riding where stretches of road riding are interspersed with trails.  This is an excellent application to test the on-the-fly adjustability of the forks and shocks on both bikes.  I have a bit of a roadie heritage and I really like to stomp on the pedals when I am on the road.  Both forks had easy to operate lockout levers, located on the top of the right leg.  Both forks also had a blow-off threshold adjustment which would allow the fork to remain locked-out while sprinting out of the saddle, but it would become active when encountering anything larger than road chatter ….nice.  There is no lockout, per se, on the RP23 on the Motolite.  However, since I only used the open position for trail riding, I set the propedal dial to position 3 (firmest) and would flip the shock to this setting when on the road.  The bike bobbed a bit when hammering out of the saddle but the suspension solid when seated and spinning.  The Rockshox MC 3.3 on the Epiphany is similar to the RP23 except that there is also a full lockout position.  The lockout was great for sprinting out of the saddle, however it punished the rider for bad pedaling technique when spinning in the saddle at certain RPMs by bobbing up and down like a springboard (or underinflated tires).  The main advantage of the MC 3.3 is the significantly larger air can.  More air volume means lower pressure.  This, in turn, means less stiction, more linear travel and reduced chances of air leakage.  For example, I ride with 70 psi in the MC 3.3, while similar sized riders who have the RP23 on the Epiphany have to use more than double that pressure to get the same sag.

Trail Riding

The Motolite felt absolutely awesome on twisty, undulating singletrack.  It shoots up hills, bombs back down and carves the corners like it was on autopilot.  This bike just felt fast, fast, FAST!  The Motolite has a racier feel with its longer stem, stiffer chassis and less active suspension.  The suspension was definitely firmer than the Epiphany, however you would be very hard pressed to find another, well pedaling trailbike that feels as plush as the Epiphany.  Actually, I feel that this is the one main advantage that the Epiphany has over the Motolite, yet it is nowhere near worth the extra thousand bucks that the Ellsworth frames are selling for.

I rode the TALAS in 120 mode most of the time.  I switched to 140 mode for several extended downhills or ultra-technical sections (such as at Terra Cotta).  Full travel felt fine on the downhills, but for flat and technical riding it felt ‘stilty’.  It was almost as if I moved from being part of the bike to sitting on top of it.  I get the same feeling when running the Epiphany with full travel and generally wind it down to about 120, which is the sweet-spot for both bikes.

One niggling little issue that I have with the Epiphany is that I have serious trouble lofting the back wheel.  With my trials background, I am pretty good at bunnyhopping.  But I just can’t seem to get the darn back end very far off the ground.  The argument has been made that who cares since the plush suspension will eat through pretty much any bump anyway.  However, I find this distressing enough for it to give me pause every time I approach a trail obstacle that I would normally just hop over.  The Motolite has given me no such trouble in lifting the bike over obstacles.

Hill Climb Test

Since steep technical climbing is my favorite type of terrain challenge, and both of these bikes are considered fantastic climbers, it seemed like fun to pit the bikes against each other in a controlled environment.  To that end I chose a hill we call the ‘fence-line’ which is our longest, steepest, bumpiest climb in the area.  It used to be really hard, but after a few decades of people chattering their bikes down it, skidding all the way…well now its darn near impossible….perfect!  Having spent serious saddle time on both bikes, I truly felt that the Epiphany was the better climber due to the ML’s less active suspension and its tendency for the front end to lift on the steeps. 

My plan was to bring both bikes, set them up as identically as possible and climb that hill till I puked.  I put the TALAS on the ML in 120 mode and wound the fork on the Epi to 110, which gave identical axle to crown lengths.  I ran the rear suspension on both bikes fully open and set the sag to 1 inch (25%).  Both bikes had identical tires (Nevegal 1.95 f and 2.1 r) and were inflated to identical pressures (30 f and 32 r).  I also used identical gearing of 22 f and 30 r for each bike.  The only thing left to do was choose which bike I rode first (Epi won the coin toss) and set up my camera to record the whole experiment. 

In the end I rode the hill 8 times, alternating bikes between runs.  I pedaled around lightly between runs to let my heart rate drop from stratospheric back to a consistent level (> 140).  Conditions were ideal, traction was great and the whole thing took me about 40 minutes to complete (or 1 run every 5 minutes).  I made it 95% on the 1st climb (Epi), cleaned the 2nd (ML) and 3rd (Epi) climbs, 50% on the 4th (ML) and 5th (Epi), 95% on the 6th (ML), 50% on the 7th (Epi) and ended with 75% (ML) on the 8th climb.  Then I puked…well not really, but I kinda felt like it.

When you tally the results, the Motolite actually edged the Epiphany out by a hair.  I still feel like the Epiphnay is a better climber, but these results have certainly shown that the difference is pretty small.

Overall

The more time that I spent on this bike, the more I loved the ride.  In the end, I rode the bike pretty hard and very often.  I figured that I racked up over 600 km on it in a 2-month period including: Guelph Lake over 10 times; Twin Ponds (Cambridge) and Trout Hollow (Meaford) 3 times each; Kolapore and Eden Mills twice each; and Terra Cotta (Georgetown), Ingelwood and 3-Stage (Collingwood) once each.  That’s a lot of trail riding, comprising a pretty broad sample of the type of trails that Southern Ontario has to offer.

By the end of the test, I was liking the Motolite so much, I had seriously considered selling my Ellsworth and buying a Motolite.  The bike adapts very well to a variety of terrain and it fit my riding style perfectly.  Plushness aside, the Motolite felt like a natural extension of my body.  I truly felt a sense of loss when I had to return it.

Dave.

Comments

[Dave]

Hi Joe,
I never tried the 4" setting...for my riding style it didn't seem necessary. Most of the people on the MTB message boards seem to feel the same way.

Dave

[joe]

What is the main difference when switching the rear end from 5-4 inches of travel. How are the characteristics of the bike changed?

[Dave L]

Lloyd,
I have never tried the RP3, though consumer reviews on it are not spectacular: http://www.mtbr.com/reviews/Rear_Shock/product_125341.shtml
There should be differences between the settings, there certainly are on the RP23. I typically ran the RP23 in 'open' mode on all trails and in the highest propedal setting when sprinting or road-riding

As for your 2nd question; the amount of shock compression under heavy pedaling has many influences including:
1. the size of gear you are using
2. which chainring you are in
3. sitting or standing?
4. the 'smoothness' of your pedalstroke
5. how heavy and strong you are
6. the leverage ratio of the suspension over the shock (ie. are you running in 4' or 5" travel mode)
It does not sound unreasonable that you would compress the shock this much under heavy acceleration.

Despite the RP3's limitations, are you unhappy with the shock's performance on the trails?

Dave

[Lloyd]

Dave
Ive had a ML for 2 yrs now. I want to change the RP3 shock for a RP23. The RP3 has no discernable difference between any of the settings - is that common ? Also if set up with 25% sag, & riding at walking pace and accelerating with one or two pedal strokes , the rear shock compresses from 13mm sag to 27mm. Have you found that too? Heavy pedaling causes shock compression?

[john]

dave, thanks for the great review.
I wish there were more in depth reviews like yours. think I've settled on an ML2

[Paul]

I have the 2006 Titus Titanium Moto-Lite and I'm running the Marzocchi All-Mountain II 150mm front forks. I've found these forks to be just amazing! Like you say, the Moto-Lite leaves you wanting to ride more! Did you ever consider the Marzocchi All-Mountain II forks? It may not have been an option. Anyway, awesome write up!
Now go ride your bike! :-)

[Iwan]

My Med ML2 frame and shock weighs 5.9lbs (2,69kg's). Checked on two scales.

[Chris]

Not a bad right up. But two things from a Motolite rider in Colorado:

1) The beauty of your Talas is that is has on the fly travel adjust, USE the 100mm setting for steep climbs! I wouldn't dream of riding up steep climbs in 120mm when it takes a second to reach down and flick a switch. You would have made that climb every time.

2) Fork - I agree the Talas isn't the greatest fork in the world. The only thing that makes me stick with it is the 3 position travel adjust. What I don't agree with you is saying the 140mm setting feels funny. The ideal fork for downhill on the Motolite is 520-525mm a2c (many riders on the mtb boards will confirm that). The a2c of the Talas at 140mm is only 508. I even have a 7mm race on mine to boost that number up a bit but it still leaves me wanting more.

Good riding,
chris