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Awesome looking bikes and very well priced too🤘🏻🤘🏻 Well done @Titan Racing Bikes! Hope to see many of them on the trails soon!

I am inclined to agree, it does seem a little steep for a trial oriented hardtail. Like @Headshotmentioned, the rear does not compress with the front and you end up with a steeper head angle when the fork compresses. The Trek Roscoe which should be a fair comparison for example has a 65 degree HA. Or maybe we are just used to running our suspension too soft... no compression no problem😝 Regardless, super stoked to a locally designed trial oriented bike!! Long overdue of you ask me🤘

Really sorry to hear about your situation OP. Unfortunately I cannot relate at all though. I have only had reliable and professional service from them every time. They even upgraded some ordered brake rotors to the next tier once for me at no cost, because they had no stock of the part I actually ordered. Always found them to be one of the best online bike part retailers in SA. Anyways, hope you get it sorted out soon!

Good looking bike that! Enjoy the Good Times you are going to have on it!😁

Saw this. Might just survive a jump or two as well😅 https://bikehub.co.za/classifieds/item/dual-suspension-bikes/662459/titan-skyrim-trail-plus

Okay, here is a guess as to why things are rusting. Consider that your older bike (Giant Talon) was quite a bit more pricey than your current Silverback (actually around double the cost ona quick google search). I would venture the components on the Giant were quite a bit better than those on your current bike. Seeing as your Silverback is an alu frame (quick google again) that would make for quite a bit of the purchase price. So the only way to keep the bike cheap is to use cheap components. How do you make cheap components? You use cheap materials that are not very corrosion resistant. This could mean that small things like putting your bike in the garage straight after washing (i.e. bike still wet) could cause rust. This is all just a theory though😁

I don't think it will make any difference whatsoever but I was in the Pretoria store the other day, and that was one of the thinnest top tube designs I have ever seen.😅

There may just be another explantion for the rust. Random question: How close do you stay to the coast? Depending on your answer I may venture an hypothesis🤔

I don't think there really is a specific travel or HA number that defines an aggressive hardtail. It is more of a purpose driven idea (to me at least). My mind just generally goes to the figure of 140mm as a guideline😅 To me an aggressive hardtail is a hardtail built for the same trails a trail or enduro category bike would be. So basically exactly the examples you gave😅 i.e. Trek Roscoe and SC Chameleon (which is one of the most coolset looking bikes I have ever seen😁). Talon looks like a purpose built XC bike (well at least according to the Giant website).

Very cool Not really my idea of an aggro hardtail though but a good bike none the less😅 By aggro hardtail I meant something like a Nukeproof scout or Commencal Meta HT. Loads of travel (140+ mm) on the front and very slack HA. If you do XC though that is probably the stuff of nightmares🤣 All the best in your search! Hope you find that cushy XC racehorse soon!

Which aggro hardtail did you have? Just curious😁

More gnar = more travel = more better right?😝😝

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I will add my 2c I have to agree with the "rather get a hardtail crowd" At R15k you are going to get bottom of the barrel components and very likely something that isn't up to the newest standards (like boost spacing), making future upgrades difficult as well. I don't know what kind of riding you do (maybe let us know😁) but if you are looking at riding some rough stuff, a nice steel or alu frame aggro hardtail will do that very very well (I say this from personal experience). Also remember that full-sus bikes are a quite a bit more expensive to maintain. You have a second shock and pivot bearings to look after as well. Just my opinion though, whatever you end up getting, hope it bring you much stoke🫡

@candyfloss Worth mentioning (if I missed the fact that someone already else has) is that Titan racing are a local brand with some pretty good support (If the reviews on the hub are anything to go by). Always nice to know you are in good hands when something does go wrong. Still sad they don't make some trail and enduro bikes. Would be nice to see some more local budget friendly options there but I guess there just is not enough market for it. 🥲 Just be careful buying at the budget end especially on full squish bikes. You could end up spending a lot of money on groupsets wearing out very quickly. As some other pointed out the classifieds here will probably be a very good place to go bargain hunting. Whatever you get, may it bring you hours of creak and puncture free joy!