# Titan Half Trac



## vdubbusrider (Jul 28, 2004)

OK i just got this today. i dont know anything about it so please jump in and school me.

it has internal cable routing for the f. der, 1-1/4" headset, under the seatstay u-brake, bottom bracked has a clamp on the shell, beefy sleeve going up the seat tube from the BB to just above the chainstay, chainstay also is two pieces having larger sleeve going to just before the looptail.

try and ignore my camera strap that is dangling in the photos. i did this in a hurry.


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## Rumpfy (Dec 21, 2003)

I don't know squat...but I recall DeeEight having one. I'm _sure_ he'll know!


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## miles (Jan 6, 2004)

*All I know about it*

is that it was made in Eugene, OR by a guy who'd been making BMX frames for a while.
I seem to recall that it got a positive write up in some mag back around '89 or so, but the details are more than a little bit hazy.

Ping Shiggy- he'll know.

miles


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## scant (Jan 5, 2004)

I remeber an MBA test on a non elevated ti frame, fork, stem, bar complete for $995


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## DeeEight (Jan 13, 2004)

*Ok...my titan and some titan history...*

https://www.bmxmuseum.com/1html/titan.html

That'll tell you something about titan's origins, but in relation to MTB history, Titan taught the boys at Sandvik titanium HOW to actually weld titanium bicycle frames (and sandvik later mass-produced ti frames for a number of brands). Pretty much all their frames have those signature 1-piece chain/seat stay with the dropout welded to it. Many frames have a wishbone/monostay arrangement to connect to the seatstays, and as E-stays were popular in the late 80s, Titan had one too. They also produced frames in chromoly, but the only way to tell them apart (aside from weighing one) is with a magnet, as even the Ti frames got painted a lot of the time.

This is my Bob Furry designed Titan Titanium Compe frame, and even painted they're still very light. With the included BB it weighed 4.0 Ibs on the nose for a 20.5" size. The BB has press fit Al cups, with cartridge bearings inserted into the cups which is a good idea (compared to other brands using press-in BBs) as a wobbly bearing won't screw up the BB shell. The spindle is 125mm titanium, and its free-floating with aluminium lock collars on each end to adjust the chainline.










And this is how I built it into my UglyTi project bike....


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## First Flight (Jan 25, 2004)

*Here's ours*

http://www.firstflightbikes.com/1990_titan.htm

IIRC from the ads of the day, they were around $400 for the frame which seemed pretty reasonable. Most of them seem to use that hammered-look powdercoat finish and the decals are usually shot since they don't seem to stick very well to the finish.


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## CJones (Aug 3, 2004)

Very cool, thanks for posting those pics! I am the original owner of a Titan 1/2 Track.

Titan was famous for titanium mini BMX frames. Back in the 80's, if you saw a little dude on a Titan at the BMX track you knew his folks had lots of $$$. They also weighed close to nothing. They started out doing only mini and small frames but eventually got into full size and pro BMX frames (in 4130) and did a few mountain bike frames. The BMX frames were considered very high-end stuff.

I think many BMXers making the transition to mountain bikes bought them because they were comfortable with the Titan name. I ordered my 1/2 Trac after seeing a prototype picture and small write-up in one of the magazines (MBA?) -- it was only a sidebar towards the front of the mag. I think they started taking orders in roughly the fall of '89 and actually got the frames done in spring '90. It took FOREVER because they had problems getting some of the tubing from True Temper. MBA did a full test later and gave it a good review. Many of the features have been posted above.

Anybody happen to have the sidebar or review from MBA test that you could scan and post here??

They came as a sort of kit. You got a frame, fork, headset, bottom bracket, brakes, and levers. Not sure what brand the headset and bottom bracket were, but the brakes were Dia-Compe. Front cantis and rear U-brake. They were supposed to come in 2 colors: Silver Vein or Strawberry Vein. (I don't think the finish on the 1st Flight pics is original.) The finish was new at the time and was 1st used by Hutch BMX -- they called it "Futuristic Black". I'm not sure if the Strawberry Vein ever made it to production, as I've only seen them in black. My frame stickers are slightly different than yours. The headtube, seat tube, and True Temper stickers are the same, but my downtube just says Titan. They may have just used a BMX frame sticker package (plus the True Temper) for the first few ones.

It was a good handling and very cool bike. I rode mine for years and years. It is currently hanging in my basement. Sorry I don't have any pics.


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## vdubbusrider (Jul 28, 2004)

what model cooks cranks are these?


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## vdubbusrider (Jul 28, 2004)

what components did your bike come with when it was new?


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## Shayne (Jan 14, 2004)

Aren't those Topline/Grafton?


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## vdubbusrider (Jul 28, 2004)

Shayne said:


> Aren't those Topline/Grafton?


well, thats what i thought until i saw this:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=56193&item=7130723353&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW

the guys swears he bought these new in the box and the box said cook on them. still i think they look a lot more like toplines/graftons myself. its the diamond shape at the pedal end that i have not seen before though.


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## DeeEight (Jan 13, 2004)

Topline's, the XLS/SLS ones (extralight/superlight, different sources called them different names). The ones on ebay look like first generation toplines (the ones that Grafton also marketed under his name).


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## vdubbusrider (Jul 28, 2004)

looks like i should have stuck with my first instinct.


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## shiggy (Dec 19, 1998)

I had one of the first frames they made. Had a 1" steerer. Looked the same otherwise. They originally came with a slip-in bottom bracket (cartridge bearing and spindle loctited into a aluminum tube. Did not work well) that clamped into the shell.
The frames where made in Eugene Oregon by Advanced Training Products. At the time they made the Burley tandems. They are now Bike Friday and make small wheel folding bikes. I designed the decals.


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## vdubbusrider (Jul 28, 2004)

do you think bike friday will have a decal set still. i'm planning to give this a new powder coat. the powder coat it has is beat and so are the decals.


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## olds_cool (Feb 15, 2004)

*i raced one of those for a while....*

they were really light. mine was the 20 inch with purple paint. never had any issues with the bb or anything, so it was made right. it was far from stiff, however. it would wiggle like a stripper if you tried to trackstand and was really hard to control at super slow speeds in the trialsy stuff. sure was smooth at speed on the race course. i remember being able to get the frame to flex enough to dig the chainrings into the frame. the geometry was pretty good if i recall correctly. mine ended up in cali. it was owned by a score truck builder for awhile. he bought it from me in virginia while he was in school. it's probably in some basement in palm desert ca right now.


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## floibex (Feb 7, 2004)

vdubbusrider said:


> well, thats what i thought until i saw this:
> 
> http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=56193&item=7130723353&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW
> 
> the guys swears he bought these new in the box and the box said cook on them. still i think they look a lot more like toplines/graftons myself. its the diamond shape at the pedal end that i have not seen before though.


 ... these on ebay are, afaik, early cqp's. I have a identical set in black. I bought them as cooks but was told by a friend that they are cqp's. neither grafton nor topline had this typical grove on both sidewalls of the crankarms.

ciao
flo


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## DeeEight (Jan 13, 2004)

floibex said:


> bought them as cooks but was told by a friend that they are cqp's. neither grafton nor topline had this typical grove on both sidewalls of the crankarms.


I own two sets of toplines, they have the groove in the arm sides. The CQP M-2000 aluminium cranks had a different groove that was applied AFTER the crank was annodized, and the area around the pedal threads were also machined flat post-annodizing. So you'd see bare silver aluminium contrasting with say, black annodized arms. Also the pedal end of the crank was machined into a distinctive point and wasn't rounded like just about every other crank made.

The end of many aluminium cranks like this (grafton, topline, CBRs) looked like a circle but on M-2000's cranks it was a square shape, turned 45 degrees so as to appear like a diamond end. The cranks in that ebay auction are the CQP M-2000's. Also there's the length issue... CBR offered 171, 176, and 181mm lengths. Grafton went 170 to 180 in 2.5mm increments, and topline stuck to even 5mm jumps from 170 to 180. CQP however...166, 168, 171, 174, 177, 181mm. The cranks on ebay being listed as 177 should have been a giveaway for most of you.... i mean really... if you don't know the length histories for the classic brands...


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## shiggy (Dec 19, 1998)

vdubbusrider said:


> do you think bike friday will have a decal set still. i'm planning to give this a new powder coat. the powder coat it has is beat and so are the decals.


Nope. I do not think they ever touched the decals. I looked for the graphic files a while back but they are long gone.


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## vdubbusrider (Jul 28, 2004)

Bummer!


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