There’s just something about a titanium bike. Its compliance smooths out the rough stuff and with the right geometry and tubing, is still stiff enough to respond to railing a corner or putting the power down. It may be heavier than carbon, but it's much lighter than steel, and when it comes down to it, a well-built titanium bike just feels amazing to ride; amazing in a way that’s hard to put your finger on.
With this in mind, we designed the Curve Cycling CXR as a cyclocross race weapon. But since it's release it has become so much more. It's been more accidental than good planning, but we’ve managed to create a super versatile, all in one machine. We might race CX from time to time.
We might also head out for long gravel rides whenever we can. We might even do a longer haul bike tour if we can get a leave pass. Don’t really have the space or the money for three separate bikes, between the Curve team and our customers we've proven the CXR performs nicely across many disciplines.
Put some CX tyres and you’re ready to race cross.. and of course some light MTB trails. This is the sweet spot for the CXR – just what we had in mind when fine tuning the geometry. The funny thing is, there hasn't been much racing done on the CXR yet. That's going to change this season though. We're going to see at least one of the top Australian CX pinners on a CXR soon. We can't wait!
The CXR has been used on plenty of bikepacking missions. Across New Zealand, Tasmania and Australia, the CXR has proven to be an awesome lightweight touring option. Put some sturdier tyres on and you're ready to hit the long road. Mixed terrain touring? No problems. Want to ride with racks? No problem! We can add some rack mounts for you during the build. Need an extra bottle cage? No problem! Again, we can add a cage mount on the underside of the downtube. Got some other customisations in mind? We're all ears. Just get in touch to discuss what you need.
Mount some wider gravel tyres and you’re ready for some gravel grinding or light weight all terrain touring. Titanium is nice and smooth over washboard corrugations and sketchy fire tracks, strong enough to carry your gear and light enough to make sure you can get up the hills fast.
You can even mount some road tyres and hang with your favourite roadie bunch on the CXR. Titanium is light enough for you to keep up and the frame is stiff enough to drop some Watts. Sure the geometry isn't perfect for the road - you might think it's a bit of a stretch? But it feels fine on sealed stuff to most of us. Adam has been seen on the front at 50kph of roadie bunches and rode 800 km from Melbourne to Adelaide over two days on his CXR with a strong bunch; that's got to count for something, I guess?
So there you have it; the story of the Curve Cycling CXR. Designed as a cross race weapon but it's living life as a versatile adventure machine! How would you set yours up? Get in touch with us or one our partners to talk it through.
Credits: @174degrees, @Blacksmithcycle