Quite often we build bikes for a specific destination. A light weight climbing bike for a trip to the Pyrenees, a long travel mountain bike for trips to the Whistler bike park... Sometimes, though, the need for a bike is less about the destination, and more about the journey. For this bike, the goal was to build a bike for international touring. Something that could handle long days in the saddle, crossing borders, and traversing varying terrain. To get the job done, we worked with our good friends at Mosaic Cycles to deliver this coupled titanium world traveler.
Light weight, compliant, and durable: Titanium is easily one of the most ideal materials to build a world traveler. This particular one was designed with all the necessary accessory mounting points for transporting gear for extended trips. The S&S couplers make it easy for boxing the bike up when the destination calls for air travel.
The Mosaic frame is paired with a Rodeo Labs 2.0 fork. A light weight carbon fork designed for loaded touring and all the mounting points you could imagine. The alloy dropouts make for a stable anchor point for racks and fenders.
Reliability is paramount when embarking on overland travel. For the spinning bits, we looked our fellow Northern California friends at White Industries to cover the headset, hubs, and bottom bracket.
The cockpit is fairly unique to anything we've done in the past. A Jones H-Bar provides both a point for steering control, and also mounting for travel accessories like lights and GPS. For long days in the saddle, the H-Bar actually provides a range of hand positions. From there, things get a bit more familiar with a Thomson stem and seatpost combo, with a Fizik Antares R1 saddle.
When you're traveling across countries, you can't always rely on having a place to charge your drive train. While we considered a Di2 group, the decision was ultimately made to go mechanical. Being a flat bar bike, it as a great opportunity to use the 12 speed XTR groupset. A wide range cassette and single chainring help keep things simple and low maintenance. There aren't flat mount XTR brakes yet, so for calipers, we went Dura-Ace.
We already mentioned the White Industries CLD hubs, but we'll elaborate further on the wheels. They're laced up to rock solid HED Belgium+ rims, 28h front and rear with Sapin Lasers for extra strength. Rubber is a set of Schwalbe G-One 38s. Fast, smooth, and durable with enough volume and tread to handle any conditions one might encounter. Full length fenders wrap it all up, helping keep the chamois dry regardless of how the weather behaves.
While simple in nature, it's quite possibly the most unique Mosaic builds we've ever done. Solid, clean, and ready to handle whatever adventure the journey has in store. Have any questions on the build? Feel free to ask! Been dreaming of a custom Mosaic build of your own? Just reach out, we'll help you get things rolling. For more photos of this stellar build, head over to the gallery here.
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