The (Re)Unified Svihura Website

Here’s a photo that I just randomly found taken at the 2014 Silver State 508 (alt link). It was the inaugural edition of this course, and here I am with fellow rider Lonni at the check in, looking over the swag and other offerings. It’s certainly a fun blast from the past.

This is the (archived) short review of the Titus Exogrid road bike in Bicycling Magazine that started me on the journey to getting one for myself. The enthusiasm and high praise for a bicycle really made an impression, and the exotic frame material matched my own eclectic tastes at the time. I could tell that this was a very unique bike and I was not disappointed when I took delivery of mine.

Some pictures of the Titus bike, taken over its life, especially showing the earlier years.

The end has arrived for my beloved Titus bike, which I’ve had since the end of 2004. That’s over 20 years of giving me many enjoyable moments, as well as helping me through the low points of many long rides as well.

The milestones that I’ve reached on it are numerous:

• My first double century in 2005
• My first overseas bike tour in France in 2005
• My first brevet series in 2011
• My first solo 508 in 2011, as well as many team 508’s
• As part of team RAAM in 2013, and RAW in 2014
• As recently as my bike tour in Italy this spring

I noticed earlier this year that there were some cracks forming on the down tube near the bottom bracket. I kept an eye on them, and everything was stable all through my bike tour in Italy in May/June, and a number of rides this summer.

Unfortunately, one of the cracks started growing longer, and I felt that it was only a matter of time before the the frame failed completely as a result. Fortunately, I have Ellis to ride now, but it was a sad moment for me today when I took off the crank and bottle cage to get a closer look. That look revealed that the cracks had almost completely circled the frame. I had briefly considered just using it as my rain bike this winter, but it doesn’t feel safe to ride it at all.

So I salute my noble Titus for all that it has given me, and retire it with some sadness and with a great amount of gratitude for it giving me so much joy and adventure.

The rain wasn’t supposed to get to Morgan Hill. And it didn’t … for a while. We got the extension on Croy done before it started raining. Off and on it went, teasing us to continue, until we skipped the last bit and finished the ride earlier than specified by the route sheet.

Good ride though and got to see James Porter and Jasmine WY for part of the day.

In February, 2024, top tube of Ellis broke at the bottom bracket. Fortunately, I was going uphill at the time, albeit a far ways away from home. And in the additional department of luck department, one of my cycling friends was able to get her husband to come and return me and my bike home.

Dave Wages, the frame builder at Ellis Cycles stands by his work, and after letting him know, he said that he’d fix the frame at no cost to me, aside from shipping to his shop, and paying for the paint that the frame would need after the repairs.

I got the frame back around June, 2024, but there were a couple of things that delayed me in getting it back on the road. The first was that the newly chromed fork had been chromed all the way up the steerer tube, which made it impossible to fit the headset bearing race at the bottom.

After trying sandpaper and emery board with little success, I put it aside for awhile, mostly because I was also starting a new job, and didn’t have the time or energy to work on it.

In the spring of this year, I returned to the task of sanding down the chrome on the fork. I got some more emery cloth, and also make use of a file. Eventually, I got enough of the chrome off to fit the race. Success!

However, the next small obstacle was that there was a small chip in the new paint job on the seat tube, near where the derailleur would go. Unfortunately, it was above that spot, so it would still be noticeable. I asked Dave about getting in touch with his painter, to go over my options. Those options were

• Send the frame back for a paint touch up, which would give the best results
• Find a local painter, and have them to the touch up
• Get some touch-up paint from the painter and just do it myself

I decided on the third option, since that would get me back on the road the quickest, and would be the least expensive. However, there was some confusion on Dave’s end about the actual painter and I ended up going back and forth with the first one for a while before Dave’s return from his vacation, when he realized that it was another painter. Once I got in touch with them, getting the paint was relatively quick.

I still managed to put off doing the touch up, not feeling totally confident in my abilities to not mess it up. However, the frame of the Titus bike that I was currently riding was showing cracks in the seat tube near the bottom bracket. I had been keeping an eye on them, and they had not been growing until last week, when it looked like the cracks would soon connect all the way around the tube and result in a major failure.

With that in mind, I went to work on Ellis, doing the touch up paint, and then starting the long job of reassembling the bike with all the components. That went pretty well, although it was a long day’s work to get it all working smoothly, especially the front shifting, which was particularly fussy. I took it on the usual Thursday Page Mill ascent, and then on a longer ride in Morgan Hill on Saturday, where it got christened by the rain.

I just did a few tweaks today, installing 32mm tires and a better climbing cassette on the back (11-34) and it should be ready for its first 200km ride on Saturday.

It’s nice to have Ellis back, and I’m looking forward to many more years riding it.