All-City Cosmic Stallion Titanium Frameset review

The spirited persona of All-City’s Cosmic Stallion means that it is an absolute blast to ride, regardless of whether you are a gravel racer at heart or just the type of rider that wants to get out and explore whatever the pace. The geometry just works whatever the surface, and there is nothing to stop you from fitting some big volume slicks for some fun on the Tarmac, making it an ideal choice among the best titanium gravel bike stalwarts.

All-City Cosmic Stallion titanium frameset - Technical details

While the Cosmic Stallion has a bit of a racy character about it, it comes with plenty of mounts for taking on an adventure or even the commute. Equipped with full mudguard mounts including provisions for a rear rack, it can become quite a versatile machine. There are three sets of bottle cage mounting points, too.

The full carbon Whisky No.9 CX fork is lightweight and stiff but it does lack any mounts for load carrying. Not something that is an issue from my point of view as there are definitely plenty of frame-mounted bags on the market to satisfy any set-up. Also loading up the front end would slow the handling and take away the fun aspect of the Cosmic Stallion on the trails.

Tyre clearances on the frame are 45mm for 700c size, or 42mm for 650b with or without mudguards fitted. That doesn’t sound massive in this day and age but that includes 3mm of clearance on either side of the tyre to cope with mud build-up and tyre flex. You could go wider if you're keen.

At the fork, you can go a little larger with 47mm on 700c and 650b, although fitting mudguards brings that down to 43mm on the 700c size.

For a clean look, All-City has run all of the cables and hoses through the down tube (with blanking plates for using a 1x system) and this also makes it easier to fit frame bags, and not worry about the cables catching on passing branches – rare but it can happen.

The rear brake hose and gear cable do run externally though - from the bottom bracket backwards - and are cable tied to the guides on the underside of the chainstays. Wired electronic systems can be fed through the stays.

Gearing covers many options on an all-road/gravel bike like the Cosmic Stallion and the chainstay/threaded bottom bracket shell junction hasn’t limited chain sizes too much. It can accommodate a max chainring of 48T for a 1x system, or if you want to go for a full roadie 2x setup the All-City will cope with a 53/39T or 52/36T chainset without issue.

As for the actual construction of the frame, All-City has used its own custom-designed Oberon Tubing dictating the tube profiles, wall thicknesses and butting profiles to deliver the ride quality that the designers want, while delivering stiffness and weight.

On the website, All-City makes plenty of references to the longevity of the Stallion’s frame and I can’t see or feel any reason to doubt that. It is very well built with welds that are a balance between understated aesthetics and functionality. The custom dropouts are a thing of beauty, too.

All-City only offers a three-year warranty against defects though, which is a lot less than most manufacturers. Dolan offers five years for instance on the GXT gravel model, and Mason’s Bokeh Ti which is just a couple of hundred quid more than the Stallion comes with a lifetime warranty.

The Cosmic Stallion is available in six sizes ranging from 46cm through to 61cm in 3cm jumps. That corresponds to top tube lengths of 510mm to 610mm.

All-City has a comprehensive geometry table on their website but to give you a bit of an idea the 55cm frame has a 560mm top tube, 540mm seat tube, and 163mm head tube length.

The overall wheelbase is 1,037mm with 440mm chainstays, while the stack and reach figures are 590mm and 385mm respectively.

Angle-wise, you’re looking at 72-degrees for the head and 73.5-degrees for the seat tube. Other details are a bottom bracket drop of 73mm, and a standover height of 797mm. The fork is 395mm long with a 45mm offset.

All-City Cosmic Stallion titanium frameset - Performance

It’s a good-looking machine, too, and while it is quite the investment at three-and-a-half grand, titanium frames tend to offer a very long ride life – although the Cosmic Stallion only comes with a three-year warranty.

'Lively, Spirited, Stable', are three words used by All-City to describe the Cosmic Stallion, and it’s not marketing hype – I think that’s a very fair description of the bike.

Coming into gravel riding from the roadie side of things, I relate to the geometry and slender aesthetics of the Stallion, and in turn, the way it behaves.

The moment I got aboard the All-City I could tell this was going to be a nimble bike to ride. The front end is low compared to many adventure-based gravel bikes on the market, and I loved the fact that this allowed me to get a good drop from saddle to bar for those sections where I wanted to get the power down.

The lower centre of gravity helps the stability of the bike at speed, too, which gives you the confidence to push things just a little bit harder and further even when the unstableness of the surface should make you think the opposite.

The feedback through the titanium tubing is spot on as well, further boosting that confidence - and being able to carry extra speed as you can feel exactly what the front and rear of the Stallion are doing.

The All-City is a relatively light bike, too, (well built up with this top-end kit least anyway) and thanks to impressive stiffness from the oversized down tube, tapered head tube, and chunky bottom bracket area it feels impressively responsive.

There is nothing out of the ordinary geometry-wise at the front end but, paired with the rest of the package, the steering manages to feel on the fun side of neutral. The Stallion feels composed, and relatively unflustered on the majority of terrain and, while you can really let the bike go on dry and firm twisty singletracks, if the going is soft and muddy there is just enough natural delay in the handling that you can easily control a slide or get yourself out of trouble if needs be.

One of the main reasons for buying a titanium frame though is the ride quality, and that is certainly in abundance here. Even without the cushioning effect of the large rubber, the All-City has a vibration-sapping feel to the tubing, bringing a degree of plushness.

This makes itself known on those longer rides where you don’t necessarily want to be riding everywhere at full chat.

The curved and slender seatstays take the edge off of what is a stiff rear end, and the geometry means that you’ll likely be running plenty of exposed seatpost for a bit more flex.

All-City Cosmic Stallion titanium frameset - Verdict

The Cosmic Stallion Titanium is available as a frameset for £3,499.99 which includes the frame, fork and seat clamp.

For a frame built using a custom tube set and full carbon fibre fork to this high standard isn’t bad. That Mason Bokeh Ti I mentioned earlier is £3,700 for the frameset, although I will add that this welded-to-order frame is probably the pinnacle in terms of finish and attention to detail.

Enigma’s Esker is a bit of a gravel racer and comes with details like a 6Al/4V grade down tube over the more common 3Al/2.5V grade for increased lateral rigidity. Things like that bump the price up to £4,028 though for a frameset.

There are also some very well-priced titanium all road/gravel bike framesets on the market like the Van Nicholas Rowtag at £2,402.67 or the Enigma Escape MK2 at £2,677.

Overall, the Cosmic Stallion is a very well-built bike that is a lot of fun to ride. It’s also highly capable and versatile, too. It has a big price tag though bringing it up against some of the best framesets available, but without the warranty length to back it up. Plus, there are some bikes, like those mentioned that also offer great ride quality for a lot less money.