bought this bike from Garrie Hill in May 2008. It has turned out to be the fastest thing I've ever ridden, and (right now) I find it the most fun. Surprisingly, it also is an incredible climber. I am surprised by this, because Bryan Ball's BROL review found the open position (the BB is not extremely high) to be less conducive to good climbing.
I've always thought that higher BB to seat ratios were necessary for me to climb well, so I could get in a more 'closed' position, so I was completely taken by surprise when this bike turned out to climb like crazy for me! I've also mostly always felt I needed a pretty stiff bike for good power transfer, especially when climbing, and once again, this bike defied all my expectations. It's not extremely stiff; it's not a noodle, but....it is pretty compliant, and there's definitely boom flex and both lateral and lengthwise flexing as I ride. It's ironic that I used to complain about this very thing on the Bacchetta Aero, and yet I don't find it to be an issue on this bike at all (I suspect I wouldn't on the Aero anymore either).
The only conclusion I can draw from this is that, even after all this time, I don't really know much about these bikes, nor have very good ability to predict how my body is going to interact with them.
The TiCa is all titanium except for the rear carbon stays. I kinda wish the entire bike were titanium for durability, even at the expense of comfort and/or performance (although I very much doubt the carbon stays contribute to performance on this bike, however....see the last paragraph). But....the gestalt of this bike is magic; so perhaps it's risky to change a single thing.
The bike is out of production now. I'm a little unclear as to why; the paranoid worry-wart side of me worries that M5 was having trouble with the carbon rear stays failing (the part of the bike I perceive to be the most vulnerable). I am so enamored of the bike, I actually bought a 2nd one, used. It's still in the box waiting to get built up (more on this below).
This bike has the dual-legged carbon fork, with a custom 55mm hub spacing, to keep things narrow enough that the chain can pass unimpeded. This is the other issue on the bike that is a little iffy; the custom front hub is pretty much made of unobtainium (as in, I have to contact Garrie to get one, who has to contact Bram Moens at M5, who is not renowned for customer service).
However, since I have a second bike, I have two front wheels. I've broken spokes twice now, so I swap the wheels back and forth while the bike shop fixes the broken one. I'm a little concerned the spokecount is a little low for day to day use. Garrie told me not to worry about this, he said I wouldn't be able to break it; that Bram is 6' 6" tall with size 14 feet, and builds things so he can't break them. Unfortunately, I seem to be able to break things despite this. I attribute this not to any abusive habits on my part so much as that I simply ride a lot. I'm not particularly heavy these days (185 pounds), but a fair amount of my riding is on less than perfect pavement, and riding in Seattle traffic, I can't baby the bike. I have to do whatever I have to do to stay safe; so I'm not always giving top priority to what will be the easiest possible path for the bike with least impacts, although I certainly avoid rough areas rather than ride through them whenever feasible. The bike is so bloody fast, that this means when I do go over bumps, it can be at a fairly high speed.
My biggest modification to the bike from stock was to replace the stock titanium tiller (with thumb-actuated brake levers) with the Velokraft U-bar from my Velokraft VK-2. This is actually the original U-bar from my first VK-2; when I sold that bike, the buyer requested a new bar. This one slips a bit; I can make it rotate in the stem by exerting upward or downward pressure. I utterly don't care; I normally just don't put pressure on the bars. Kamil Manecki (Velokraft builder) has since modified these bars to be much shorter; I vastly prefer these, because they come back to a very relaxed and comfy hand and arm position.
The M5 has a reputation for poor low-speed handling, for being twitchy at walking speeds, and generally just being a racing bike that's really only good for going really fast on open roads. I take great pleasure in (perhaps obstinately) using it for the diametric opposite of that. With these handlebars, I can ride it on a sidewalk at pedestrian walking speeds with stability. It is trivial to slow down and glide to a stop using a one-handed trackstand, and to start up that way. I don't perceive its low-speed handling to be any worse than my Fujin SLII or Velokraft VK-2, or really any worse than any SWB bike I've owned; in fact, as one data point, I think I'd rate its low speed handling as better than a Lightning P-38, which (while a fabulous bike) I find a little 'quicker' than I'd like it to be (very much a matter of personal taste).
So....my 2nd TiCa is going to have to have U-bars, also. And while I'm at it, I want a front disc brake. This will give me the ability to rein in the considerable speed of the bike in tight traffic situations, plus the ability to run different size front wheels; 406 as well as 451 (the stock TiCa is a 700c / 451 combo); I'd like to run the Marathon Supreme 20 x 1.6 tire in the winter.
Since the VK-2 U-bars are no longer made in the length I need/want, I've been looking around for a U-bar that's similarly long. The one that (so far) seems to fit the bill best is the Challenge OC bars (open cockpit, aka U-bars) that are on my Challenge Fujin SLII. I bought a second pair of these, and they seem like they will ergonmically fit the bill. The rub is, the stem/riser is for a 1" fork steerer. The TiCa fork is 1 1/8". Hmmmmm....
The solution I'm going to attempt is to have a titanium monoblade disc-brake front fork fabricated, with 1" steerer, and then use a Chris King DeVolution headset to adapt it to the frame. The fork will be made to work with off-the-shelf trike monohubs, similar to what I have on my Catrike 700 (later post for the trike). Those hubs are 36 spokes, so that should be the end of my spoke breakage problems. I'm going to have both 451 and 406 sized wheels made, so I can switch from a Stelvio or IRC Roadlite go-fast configuration to a slower but more durable 406 tire at will.
It's not totally clear when this new fork will be ready, so for now, I effectively just have the one TiCa (hardly a problem, as I've yet to figure out how to ride more than one bike at a time).
