Leave it to the Euro crowd to come up with quirky variations of sports for everyone to get involved with. Germany’s Mawis Bikes just finished this titanium wonder to contest the local round of, wait for it… MTB Orienteering.
Mathis Scherer is a builder with a passion for titanium, and he’s not the only one. Interestingly, we’ve probably featured more German frame builders on The Spoken specializing in ti than in steel.
His workshop is based in the small village of Kleinblittersdorf, just near the French border, and the latest frame to leave it is unlike anything we’ve ever seen before — although some features seem curiously familiar.
Admittedly, MTB Orienteering is a rather niche pursuit, even by European standards, and it’s basically what you’d expect it to be: an off-grid checkpoint trail with a maps, compass and no GPS.
The customer always had a thing for early 90s
Instead, Mathias suggested using the internals from one in a fork built for 29″ wheels, effectively raising the cockpit high enough to avoid Cannondale’s characteristic 90s handlebar drop.
Because MTB Orienteering events are often multi-day affairs, there is the ability to install racks, and a Pinion gearbox and Gates belt drive ensure a trouble-free power delivery. The rest of the parts list is suitably top-shelf:
Bike Ahead Wheels
KillHill Brakes
Schwalbe Thunder Burt Tires
Reverb Stealth Seatpost
SQLab Saddle
There are eccentric inserts in the dropouts to tension the belt, which is installed via an invisible split in the seat stay, for which Mathias was awarded a Technical Innovation award at last year’s Bespoked show.
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