It's bike check time again, and this time we've got something special. Today we're looking at Jason's All-City Titanium Cosmic Stallion. This is Jason's debut appearance in our bike check articles, but he's been around the shop for more than a decade - many of you will be familiar with Jason from our sales floor. Jason has nice taste in bikes, and we think this Cosmic Stallion build is pretty damn tasty.
All-City are known for building no-nonsense bikes with a classic aesthetic, with steel as their main material of choice. All-City combine engineering with elegance to produce bikes that are as fun to ride as they are beautiful to look at. The regular steel Cosmic Stallion is a stunning frame to begin with; the titanium version only serves to further enhance that beauty and bolster it with the unmistakably clean look that only comes from raw ti and combines it with the ride quality of steel and the weight of carbon. Built for racing, the ti Cosmic Stallion is made with All-City's proprietary 'Oberon' tubing, and drops three quarters of a pound off the frame weight of its steel sibling.
Built to be versatile, the Cosmic stallion will clear up to 700x45c or 650bx42mm tires and features internal cable routing with options for mechanical or electronic shifting, and like any good fat-tired drop bar bike has mounts for racks and fenders to do double-duty as a super-commuter or bike packing rig.
Let's start at the top with this one - the showstopper might be the frame, but the Shimano GRX Limited Edition groupset really is the cherry on top. Produced for a short run in 2022 only, the limited groupset features polished components rather than anodized black or grey, for a classic take on this modern groupset. Jason opted for the 1x groupset for simplicity with a 40t chainring up front and an 11-42t cassette, there's enough range there for most things. The polished aluminum on the GRX groupset complements the raw titanium frame beautifully without it being too much - we're a big fan of clean understates builds like this.
Moving on, the GRX brakes also come with polished calipers. Paired up with MT900 finned rotors that makes for some powerful, predictable and well-cooled braking. Shimano brakes always have such a solid bite point and tend to be pretty low maintenance, providing consistent power that's so reliable we rarely find ourselves giving them a second thought.
Speaking of understated beauty, would you just look at those dropouts? We love how clean titanium welds can look. Keep scrolling for some more titanium welding and anodizing porn...
Next up are the wheels, Jason is using Shimano's GRX carbon wheels. With a lightweight build on straight-pull hubs these rims are race ready, but combine with a shallower profile for resistance against cross-winds on longer rides and a wide 25mm internal width, they're a full modern wheelset designed for the rigours of gravel riding and racing. These wheels feature Shimano's legendarily simple yet robust cup and cone bearings which are easy to service and have an ultra low rolling resistance. Big thanks to Doug Giles at Shimano for getting hold of these wheels for Jason. Shod with 700x45c rubber in the form of Maxxis Ramblers, Jason decided to err on the grippy side of things for a predictable ride.
Finishing up the build is an Easton cockpit with an EA90 stem at 90mm long and an EA70AX handlebar. The AX series is Easton's gravel bar with a sixteen degree flare, for better control over rough terrain when in the drops, and can also be more comfortable. Finishing those bars off is Supacaz Sticky Kush bar tape - providing comfort and a sticky texture for grip in foul weather. For headset, Jason is running a classic and super reliable Chris King dropset in silver, with bearings that last basically for life and high quality parts, there isn't much better. Finally, the seatpost is an old faithful Thomson setback - classic, quality, clean.
Thanks for reading, we hope you enjoyed! If you'd like to check out more of our bike-check articles, follow this link and enjoy the read! If you have any questions about any of the products featured in this article or would like to enquire about ordering parts or even commissioning a custom build, please feel free to send us an email at sales@steedcycles.com
