I’m also a LH pilot and have an Engima Espirt S&S bike, and I absolutely love it. I bid for destinations which allow me to take my bike with me, and find I do the majority of my long training rides while at work; allows more time at home to keep the girlfriend happy.
-
I have friends who have steel Ritchey BA, and they’re great bikes, but a titanium S&S is the ultimate. The Ritchey BA is slightly heavier (esp the rear triangle), and the joining system is good, just not as good as the S&S ( my opinion).
-
titanium is a great material; my bike is light, stiff, responsive, and with a narrow seat post (to allow a little flex) extremely comfy (due to the frame design it doesn’t have much seat post exposed).
-
I’ve raced the bike, and out the saddle you really don’t feel any flex from the titanium or the couples.
-
There’s a lot of good titanium manufactures out there, Moots, Seven etc who also offer S&S. I think (and could be wrong) a few of the cheaper engima frames are from the Far East.
-
I would make the bike as robust and fixable as possible; you can get great lightweight wheels which use J-Pull spokes. This means if you bust one it’s significantly easier to replace from almost any bike shop anywhere.
-
Alloy Bar and (maybe carbon) Stem to protect against Loaders. You’ll save a few xxx grams with a carbon cockpit, but with a good quality fork, it’s not 100% necessary. My stem is fairly well protected in the box (12” hard case) but I wouldn’t vouch for the bars, as such they are deliberately alloy.
-
definitely carbon seatpost (Ritchey superlogic?)
-
SJS cycles (if you’re in the uk) do some good anti crush poles, netting etc.
-
get a Headset Spacer Lock Ring. Means you remove the bars and stem together; meaning you don’t have to reset your handlebar tilt each time, less bolts to Undo , and speeds up assembly/ disassembly. The lock ring keeps the headset compressed.
As a rough guess/guideline can fully pack my bike in around 20-25mins.
Aside from my shoes and helmet, the bike is completely self contained ready to travel; tool bag (+spare cables) saddle bag etc.
It’ll be a great purchase which I highly doubt you’ll regret.
ATB
.