Strong frame
Adjustable travel
Light for a freeride

Adjusting the coil shock is difficult because the seat post gets in the way (minor).

I bought the QM for its frame strength and suspension travel. I also bought it because it was cheap! It is a ‘99 model and had been hanging around the LBS for a long time with the price slowly dropping. I demoed a switchblade for a couple of days last year and really liked it (see reviews under the Switchblade category). I ended up buying the QM for a little over a thousand dollars less than a comparably equipped Switchblade. I really like the feel of the coil-over compared to the air of the Switchblade.

I do everything on this bike. Even though it is essentially a freeride bike, it works well for my needs as an XC bike. It’s not as flickable as my old Zascar, but I seem to get up the hills in about the same time. Seems a little strange with the QM being around 30 pounds, I expected a harder time with climbing. I suspect that the extra traction from the rear shock compensates for the extra weight I am lugging up. On a normal loop around my local trail I am too beat up by the downhill on my HT to do more than one loop. My second time riding the trail on the QM I did two loops because I felt so much fresher and got in a much better hill work-out as a result.

The QM begs to be launched. I am about 190 lbs and landings are really plush. I even landed with the front wheel crossed up just recently and the suspension gave me time to recover. I am constantly looking for things to launch off and logs to jump, stuff I have previously avoided most of the time. I think I could probably have gotten by with a lesser-travel (and maybe slightly cheaper) fs rig like what everyone else has and still got a lot of the benefits but I really like having six inches of coil-over in the back (I haven’t even tried it at the 4 1/2 inch setting yet). I will also race the QM XC this summer. That’s probably an anathema to the gram’mers , but I will be racing in the Keystone Xterra off-road triathlon. Even the tri guys are all over keeping the weight down, but this race-course has an 8-mile downhill piece with rock gardens, roots and drop-offs that almost everyone stops and gets off for (with the exception of heroes like Ned Overend!). Anyway I will probably get to the top in about the same time as I did on the HT but I will get down in half the time and I won’t be so completely wasted for the trail run (yuck!). I suppose if I was a pro and seconds counted I would ride a lighter fs bike for the climbing and suffer some pain on the descent from the lesser travel but since I am about an hour behind the winners as it is, I would rather have the pleasure and fun of the QM over the pain and suffering of a lighter less capable bike!

I realize that there’s a psychological thrill out of having a light bike, but I get a thrill out of having a relatively heavy bike and still charging up the hills and a much bigger thrill out of flying down, taking the most heinous lines and floating through everything in my way. I gladly pay the weight price for greater launch capability!

It’s still pretty weird stopping and adjusting the travel on the psylo SL, I can adjust it down while riding but the necessity of completely unweighting the handle bars to extend it back out have so far required a complete stop and almost caused a trip down the wrong side of the mountain.

I have not had any trouble with the bike’s geometry when having only 3 inches in front with the 6 in the back. It is not recommended in the manual, but I only have it set there for the long extended climbs (typical for Colorado!). It may just be that I am not a sufficiently finesse rider to notice the sketchiness that the geometry charts and other riders allude to. For most everything else I leave it at 4 - 5 inches.

Show me the death drops...

Similar Products Used:

Demoed Titus Switchblade & RacerX. Own GT Zaskar

For anyone who has the QM with the original style rocker plates, Titus has new beefier plates that can retrofit your frame. In order to do the swap, you'll need to buy the sealed bearing kits and a new Fox 8" shock from Titus. The new plates also use an M8 (8mm) shock bolt rather than the skimpy M6's. The change will cost you a few hundred dollars, but MAKE THE CHANGE! It was the best thing I ever did to my bike. No more broken M6 bolts, no creaks, no flex, feels like it added an extra inch to the travel. It breathed new life into my suspension.

BUY THE NEW SHOCK AND PLATES!

Quality of travel, stiffness, adjustablity, customer service

hmm, nothing i can think of

This bike rocks, the quality of travel is amazing, no sqeaks (unlike the mountain Cycle), no pivot slop, beefy rear, point it and go. The other great thing about this bike is the customer service. These people care about thier product and are willing to work with you. I used to be a mountain cycle guy but do to a few interesting expiriences I have bought a non Mountain Cycle product and I am sooooo stoked

Similar Products Used:

Mountain Cycle CXS, San Andreas, Moho STS

Customer suport! Chris
(the owner of Titus) is great! Willing to go out of his way to set you up with the right frame for your size and weight including custom setups.
The bike:
Rock solid feel and handling. Exelent machining/welding.

No clean routing for
disc line to rear disc.

Awesome! Does everything right. Super smooth
and rock solid NO FLEX! Couldn't be happier!

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FSR - judy XL

Adjustability
Strenght
replacable hanger
Horst Link

nothing yet

After researching the various kinds of full suspension bikes, I've decided to build my dream bike. My research was narrowed down between Titus Quasi Moto and Intense Uzzi SL. The only thing I didn't like about the Uzzi was the height of the bottom bracket(14inches to high)and no replaceable hanger. Also since the majority of my riding is in Arizona, where the terain is much more solid (rocky) and rough (loose rocks and boulders), I felt the Quasi Moto was the best option for this region. However, I wouldn't have minded this frame up in my native state of Washington, where the terians are soft(mud and dirt), technical (loaded with roots) and the single tracks are so narrow that only the width a tire could fit. As far as performance goes, I can't make comparison with other FS, since lack the experience in this feild. I do feel I've made I wise descision considering that majority LBS in Phoenix and most of the Web-site retailers would die for this bike. I love the way this bike handles. 5 star

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1st FS

The quality of the suspension is superb, at least compared to what I've ridden before. I like being able to switch between 4.5" of travel and 5.8". I only started using the 4.5" mode recently, but it's great for those more pure XC oriented rides with lots of climbing. The head angle change is noticeable and nice in that situation.

The bike climbs very well, and descends incredibly. It also handles quite quickly for this type of bike. I love this thing in really rocky terrain, it is soo smooth. It also eats up big drops nicely. My level or riding has gone up considerably thanks to this bike.

The ability to call Titus and have a person answer and talk to a technically knowledgeable person right away is great. They have also been usually responsive to my emails. Great company to work with.

As with a lot of 4-bar bikes, you need to flip the B-tension screw around to the other side on XTR deraileurs (and maybe others), to get just a bit more tension so the rear der doesn't hit the chainstay in real rough stuff.

If you want a more "freeride" oriented bike, that you can easily climb on, this is the ticket. I regularly do 3-5 hour rides on this bike with plenty of climbing (although of course the descents are the truly fun part). The adjustability is something to factor in, and the quality of the frame and suspension is superb. The bike is very versatile, love it!

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Santa Cruz Heckler.

Bike handles steep and tight singletrack very well, high speed decents are a breeze and big drops are sucked up nicely for a 6.5" travel bike.

Bike gets alittle sketchy in the loose rocks common to the NorthEast race courses. Big air and flat landings are alittle harsh, but if you suck-up the take-off and get those tires back on the ground you'll gain ground on the guys with 8" of travel. Could use 8"rear disc in rear for Hayes set-up.

This is a great bike, I race at the toughest place in the East (Plattekill)known for death drops steep single track and rock gardens that Martha Stewert with oogle over! This mountain is nasty and the bike handles it well. This bike has landed me on the podium a few times this season! This bike set-up properly keeps up with all the "Real Downhill Bikes" in Expert class. Alan at Titus is helpfull and gets parts out quickly, this is important since there is no local dealer in my area. Love the bike, I'm gonna build-up a new one for the 2001 season with 7.5" travel and White Bros. DH-3 with similar components, look-out!!I am going to build-up the old frame for free-riding, that with make a sweet trail bike. Buy a Titus new or used you'll love it.

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Kona stab
Intense
Schwinn Straight 8

Freeride delight
Good on seated climbs
Best on any descent

None, since I installed sealed bearings

Finally broke down and replaced the 10mm bushings with sealed bearings. Bought them directly from Allen @ Titus for $150 for all 3. The Horst Link in the rear remains a bushing. Best upgrade I've made to the bike.

The process for installation of the bearings was no big deal. Titus includes installation tools which are just really long bolts with really big washers to squeeze those babies in. You may have to replace the rocker arms depending on your setup. I got away with special 10mm reducers for my rocker arms. If you go this route you need to have one of those old bottom bracket tools that grab onto 2 little holes in the reducers. I use a Blue Park Tool for the job. Their a washers used to center the chainstays and rocker arms. A little experimentation and centering is no problem.

The travel is smoother now and maintenance is reduced to brushing off the dirt. I've always liked this bike, now I like it even more.

Similar Products Used:

None, always had hardtails

Beefy design,quality bushing construction

hard to clean

This is a well built fs design that will not noodle on you.No pedal bob no matter how hard you hammer it the rear tracks well.Nice nitrite coated 10 mm pivot tubes very durable.Bearing retrofit kit available.Solid built,you don't even worry about it,no troubles whatsoever with this bike

Similar Products Used:

Kona fs,Litespeed softail,

Light (for the strength & function)
Adjustable
Quality
Suspension design
Looks

Small amount of filing necessary on a few points (dropouts, shock mount) to allow necessary clearance.
Titus very rarely replies to Emails, this makes it very difficult to get assistance with issues if you're not in the U.S.A.
Due to the change from bushings to bearings, you can't put the new DH rearend onto the older frames :o(

For a 30lb bike with 6" of plush travel at each end, it climbs amazingly well. My other FS is a sub 23lb (all XTR with airshocks, carbon bar etc) ProFlex 757, which will outclimb most HTs easily as the crosslink & rear suspension are perfect for climbing, I expected a LOT more trouble climbing on the Quasi, due to the weight & the fact that I had twice as much soft suspension under me, but it still powers up hills with quite reasonable aplomb!

Downhill, the suspension just soaks up the bumps so that you can run a lot faster & easier. Haven't managed to bottom the suspension as yet, though my much lighter friend with an FSR BigHit does on his. (More to the point, he hasn't bottomed out the Quasi either, he goes harder on both than I do!)

Singletrack, I expected a lot of problems with the slack steering angles of the Hanebrink (essentially a 8 " fork with spacers to limit the travel), so I was very pleasantly surprised to find the the Quasi is quite nimble on tight, twisty singletrack.

All in all, I'm very happy with the Titus, it's well worth the thousands that I threw into it, and the hassles of the 18 month build process. It will fill my needs for a while yet (it has to, no way can I afford another bike like this!)

Similar Products Used:

FSR Big Hit
ProFlex Beast