New Carver Ti-Glide & 200 mile ride report

My RANS Stratus XP was the only recumbent I’ve ever owned (>9 yrs: 20K miles), so, naturally, my experiences will be compared to those owning an SXP.

My new Carver Ti-Glide arrived just 5 weeks after placing the order, which included:
- 26“/26” heavier duty version frame
- 18 speed Pinion gearbox already cabled to its grip shifter
- 38T & 30T chainrings (red anon.) both bolted to Pinion spiders
- Pinion CNC 165mm cranks, installed
- Carver recumbent Ti fork
- Cane Creek headset (red anon.), installed
- single speed cassette spacer kit
- Ergon grips
- two Carver one-piece vented rotors
- longer seat struts
- Ti bottle cages,
- two Pinion oil change kits.

From my SXP
-cleaned chain (I use Purple Extreme lube)
-Eggbeater 3 pedals
-Recycled Recumbent seat
- RANS seat clamp/rail
- RANS chopper bar & riser
- Avid levers/BB7 brakes
- RANS rear rack
- Arkel TailRider, customized with a 50 oz water bladder
- front & rear USB rechargeable lights
- Click-Stand

From my LBS:
- new brake pads/cables/housings
- CatEye wireless computer
- various fasteners
- 7 hours of shop time and expertise (camaraderie included)

And completing the build:
-new TerreCycle bar mounts
-new bar end mirrors
-new 60mm 26” black polycarbonate fenders
-new bar bell, red anon.

My SXP was set-up for touring and my Ti-Glide as well, with wide rims (Velocity Blunt 35) and tires (50-559 Marathon Supremes). Maybe one day I’ll change my rear hub (White Industries XMR) from QR to thru-axle and dropouts.

The first noticeable difference between the two bikes is the Ti-Glide was lighter when picked up off my LBS floor; the bike without accessories weighed 37 lbs.

The frame is gorgeous, with the smoothest welds I have ever seen on a bike in recent memory. The brushed titanium frame and fork with bead-blasted Carver logo is complimented by black accessories, and a little splash of color (red anodized chainrings, headset and bell).

The Ti-Glide is appropriately named, for the ride is very nice, like gliding down the road. Not as flexy as the SXP, but firmer while feeling more of the road surface. I can feel the bike flex when riding through uneven road intersections but not nearly bouncing me out of the seat like a few times riding the SXP. The big improvement is slow speed handling is much better, with much less fork flop while climbing at or below 5 mph. I am also seated much further forward (Xseam = 42.5”), near the front of the seat rail, than the rearward seat location on my standard-size SXP frame. The Ti-Glide recumbent fork, with its 89mm offset, improves steering, holding a firm straight line but definitely feeling it wanting to turn when starting the turn. More so than the SXP’s milder-feeling steering.

I prefer the BB height of the 26x26 frame than that of the 26x20 frame. The drop is 7” from the edge of the seat to the crankshaft center; a 3” increase over my SXP. My frame selection also met my desire for a stiffer frame with a higher weight limit (350 lbs) for touring.

I got used to the Pinion after just three rides. Pedaling and shifting felt kind of stiff at first, but is quickly improving during the recommended 620 mile (1,000 km) run-in. I start out in 6th gear and still have torque doing 30 mph going downhill in 18th, albeit our hills are short here. I find the need to downshift the Pinion two gears at a time while barely stopping the pedals when climbing my local, short, steeper grades. When cruising the flats, I’m in gear 13 or 14 doing 15-16 mph, while the small 11.5% gear difference is nice in a headwind. It is also good to be able to quickly dump or jump several gears at once when desired, my wrist range-of-motion being the only limit. I love being able to shift while stationary, for I sometimes forgot to quickly downshift when rapidly stopping for traffic at a trail intersection, waving a stopped, friendly motorist on when they tried to let me pass through first, while I prepared to crunch through a slow, downshifting start.

Davis advised to go with the 38T/30T chainrings, allowing the chain to clear the chainstay; no need for an idler pully with the Paragon sliding dropouts. The frame’s idler bracket was removed at Carver Bikes prior to shipping, with no sign of it having been on my frame. I was going to go with a 30T/24T combo to mimic the lowest and highest gears of my old SRAM 3x9 (sheldonbrown.com) but found the gear ratio using the 38t/30t to be the basically the same using Pinion’s online calculator. This gives me three lower and two higher gears than before. I am also following Davis' advice to change the Pinion oil after the first 1,000 miles, then yearly afterwards.

My Ti-Glide is 10 inches longer than my SXP, which posed a bit of an in-home storage problem where the SXP was kept, now requiring front wheel removal. A blockhead fork mount screwed to a corner wall 13” off the floor makes it easy to park just out of the way of a rearward interior doorway while keeping the front fender off the floor.

Doing business with Davis and Max at Carver Bikes, either over the telephone or via text or email, was easy, fun and a learning experience that I highly recommend. The 10% OEM discount on Pinion with frame purchase was a nice surprise.

My thanks to Tim Cain, A.D. Carson, Davis Carver and Gary Solomon, at Laidback Bike Report, for getting the word out on this great bike to replace my broken-framed SXP.

On special order: a newly designed Ti rear rack to match the Ti Glide's frame and fork, "rugged enough to give to your grand kids” (carverbikes.com). My very small contribution to the cause…..

John

 

Congrats. Looks awesome. I am sure you will really enjoy the ride and ownership experience. You are already there, actually.

I am shocked that you only had to wait 5 weeks for the bike. Did they already have a frame built?

I did a similar thing on my Ti Carver by having just a few items in anodized red here and there. I like just that little bit of color to liven it up, which is way shy of what some people do, which is to try to go all matchy-matchy on everything (which usually ends up looking tacky).

That feeling of the bars wanting to turn on their own at the beginning of the turn is exactly what flop feels like. But if the low speed handling is better, it's better. Out of curiosity, do you know the head tube angle? It would be on the build sheet.

You mentioned that there was no sign of it after they removed the idler bracket. I experienced a similar thing with my fork. The reverse rake messed with the builder's head and they accidentally put he disc brake tab in the wrong place. After I got it back after they fixed it, I was amazed that there was essentially no indication that it was there before. The tube had a very small, subtle slightly flatter spot in that location - that's all. I found that only because I knew exactly where to look.

 

What a nice build John, and the red accents you and Steamer have make me a little jealous - they really pop. Carver does really good work.

 

That's a sweet ride! How does seat adjustment work? It looks like a post with a fairly short fore/aft adjustment range?

 

I am shocked that you only had to wait 5 weeks for the bike. Did they already have a frame built?
Out of curiosity, do you know the head tube angle? It would be on the build sheet.
I like just that little bit of color to liven it up....


Steamer: yes, the frame, Pinion and fork were in stock (lucky I guess). Once my order was placed, they ordered the CNC crank arms from Pinion, but Davis told me that would only take about 10 days. The rest of the wait was because his shop was busy. I don't know what the head tube angle is; since the frame was in stock a build sheet was not involved. I originally got the red accent idea from Davis' Ti-Glide website, where the bike shown has a red chainring, but my tailbag had just a little red trim to start from.

Carver does really good work.

rasinCain: yes indeed! Thanks again for your leadership in developing the Ti-Glide and getting the word out.

How does seat adjustment work? It looks like a post with a fairly short fore/aft adjustment range?

Mobilemail: the Rans seat clamp is quick release. The adjustment range is dictated by the length of the seat rail, for which Carver already had threaded bosses to mount the rail to the frame. One item I failed to mention: I also transferred from my SXP a RANS seat rail memory lock BPST0233 - SEAT RAIL) MEMORY LOC (SOLD EACH) – PHOENIX BIKE WRX I found riding my SXP that I never could get the quick release (it's plastic) to tighten enough to keep the seat from sliding when I pushed hard while climbing. The memory lock has two set screws to tighten against the seat rail.

 

That is very much like a Lightfoot Traveler to my eye. EXXXXcellent.

 

You are correct. When it was first on the drawing board and I was having AD Carson look at it he saw some similarities with the Lightfoot too. You have a Ti Lightfoot for sale on BROL now if I remember correctly. Cool bike, would be hard to part with.

 

I saw that Ti Lightfoot Ranger for sale on BROL right when I pulled the trigger on my Ti-Glide order. I'm not disappointed.

 

AD Carson said the Glide is the better bike. I've never ridden a Ti Lightfoot, so I couldn't say; I suspect it's a good bike too. It's nice to have the manufacturer still in business, however, so that alone would tilt me to the Carver.

 

I considered the Ranger when I was shopping for my first bent in 2012, as I was looking for a dual 26" bike. Alas, I bought the SXP mainly because the nearest bent dealer (2 hour drive away) didn't carry Lightfoot but was a RANS dealer, and I got smitten by Randy Schlitter's Into The Ride articles.

 

Thanks for the write up. My Stratus XP converted to 20/26 has a 7" drop from seat to BB. Have to admit I like the look of Carver's other recumbent LWB. Photo posted by gmike68 on BROL. He reported it has a 9.5" drop from seat to BB.

 

Welcome to the TiGlide club John. It really is a special bike and you did a very nice build on it. I really enjoyed your write up.

Mine is three years old now and, like you mention, it has a great ride quality and eats up miles. It gets better with each ride. Like Tim, I've tried a number of setups on mine from racer to tourer. A testament to its versatility. The Pinion Drive, even though it's well past the break in period, still scrubs off enough watts to take it out of the speed demon category for me. Being a spinner probably makes this worse.

I really look forward to hearing how the ti rack works for you. You'll love the bike. It's one great all-a-rounder.

 

Thanks BNB. I just passed 730 miles on the bike, just over Pinion's 1,000 km break-in. The gearbox and shifter were noticeably stiff at first. My average heart rate was up and my average speed was down. Now within a half mph of my usual average and my heart rate is more normal.

I hadn't ridden for 8 weeks before the bike was finished, so I've been building up my miles after injuring a hamstring from too high mileage to soon. After tweaking the bike while chasing various leg and butt pains, I've settled into a good fit dealing with a slightly different pedal stroke from the 4" lower drop from my SXP. I also replaced the seat with my standard RANS seat to help get my occasional sciatica to settle down. I'll be truck/bike touring Wisconsin and Iowa before riding RAGBRAI this year.

 

Wow, Joe that's right it has been three years. You were an early adopter and the first Pinion install as far as I know. John, Joe has had most of the titanium bents, so that's high praise for the Carver.

 

Another pleasant difference riding the two bikes, I'm not sliding forward in the seat nearly as often as riding the SXP. Maybe because of the Ti-Glide's rearward slanting seat tube vs the SXP's forward slanting tube?