Sad Day. Tutus Closes.

*Team photo from 2006 (by Michael Darter), with all the new bikes from Tempe.

I was perusing the electronic pages of MBACTION.com and came across the headline "Titus Calls It Quits." Wow. That just really kinda hits home after having been a Titus backed team for two years (2006-8). The people that work(ed?) there are so awesome, and were so much fun to hang out with it was hard to believe.

*Lydia wearing a Titus "T" titanium necklace they gave her at Sea Otter.
We would go as a team out to Phoenix for the Scottsdale NMBS race each year, and we always made it a point to go hang out and tour the facility in Tempe (it has since moved).

*Randy and Vanessa after their races in Scottsdale.
Our sales rep at the time was the incomparable E.J. (short for "Evil Juicy"), and he would have us hang out for the afternoon and learn how the carbon process was done, watch the designers creating the next generation bikes, test ride some of the "Franken-Bikes" they had created for themselves...and generally drink a crap-ton of beer after they were closed.

*While still at Titus, E.J. was one funny mother-f****r. This is him, hammered, wearing a wrestling mask the night I showed up on my trek East.

When I was moving from L.A. to Columbus, I stopped in to Tempe to visit with the guys on my drive to Alburquerque, New Mexico to pick up Lydia at the airport. All my crap in tow, we rode beach cruisers from EJ's place through town and got quite hammered. The next day's drive from Tempe to Flagstaff, then on to New Mexico was a rough one...but something I'll never forget. The Titus peeps were great.

*The Scottsdale race was always a great place to see friends you don't normally get to see, like Mary Mac! Well, I can only hope that someone other than Pacific Cycles will step in and take over the brand, because I would hate to see it all disappear. Good luck to everyone at Titus, we all wish you the best...

*Service? Yeah, they had that. While at Sea Otter, Ara's bike (his beat up old race bike, not a Titus) was a total loss. The guys at Titus stepped up and loaned him a brand new Racer-X for his race.