Dulwich Hill Bicycle Club

A chap at work is thinking of purchasing a Titanium Bicycle Frame from the US, and then adding the group set etc. I thought the forum would be a good source of info for him. The titanium frames are pricy compared with cf & steel.

Toff; et al experts - is there any real advantage in the titanium frame - its not an alloy, strong and guaranteed to last a life time...

thanks

john (annoying) (lol sorry im not atually into that name, but its what crafty calls him?! and i cant remember forum name?!!) has one that he got in from england, ask him id say.

You mean NOOG don't you Tim. He got a planet-x.

I've been considering Ti, along with every other material, but since i've never riden it, i don't have any opinion from personal experience.

Talk to geoffs, I think hes back in Aus tomorrow

It is a misconception that Ti frames lasts forever and buyer expectation should be adjusted accordingly. If you Google, there are plenty of fractured Ti frames around. One issue with Ti frames is that it requires a very high standard of welding and faults can develop there due to variance.

Other than that. Ti has a reputation for ride quality and resistance to environmental corrosions. Of course, there's the $/bling factor.

john (annoying) (lol sorry im not atually into that name, but its what crafty calls him?! and i cant remember forum name?!!) has one that he got in from england, ask him id say.

Hey that's me!

I'm probably not the one to ask. I bought titanium over carbon purely because I preferred the ride of titanium mountain bikes over carbon ones (it didn't hurt that they threw in a carbon frame for free though). I've never actually ridden a carbon road bike.

The Planet X Ti frame is actually a rebadged Lynskey frame, So I guess it's an made in the US even though I shipped it in from the UK.

Titanium frame...
1) Expensive.
2) Probably whippy.

People have been making titanium frames since the 50's and they've always been on the fringe, but never made it to the mainstream.

I suspect it's because they don't offer value for money for most uses. For weight, CF beats it; for stiffness, almost everything beats it; and for cost only really top end bikes will be more expensive. There may be a comfort factor that I'm not aware of too though. I reckon Geoffs can fill all the gaps.

When I was looking around, I saw this table on the Moots website which set things out pretty well.
http://www.moots.com/#/why_ti/

Our friend and personal Annecy area cycling guide Dave, from French Cycling Holidays, has a custom made Serotta (USA) Titanium / Carbon mix bike - here's some shots. I'm sure it was the lightest bike I've ever picked up!

I think the word on the street is Ti frames are very good if your a dentist.

http://bikesnobnyc.blogspot.com/2008/06 ... ha-to.html

I believe Bikesnob has said Serotta's are good for Dentists, not Ti frames.

Thanks for all the input - I wil pass it on - appreciate it

cheers

I'm pretty happy with my Ti frame and I'm in no hurry to change.
Old Ti frames used to be whippy because they were built using commercially pure titanium. The frames today are built from Ti 3-2.5 which denotes the addition of aluminium and vanadium. Ti 6-4 is used for the dropouts as it is much harder.
Expensive? There is a company over in the US called Hanebro that makes reasonably priced Ti frames. I've had a couple of chats with them about a custom tandem frame which they make at the right price.
Some of the Ti frames that have been made to be as light as possible have run into reliability problems associated with being at the bleeding edge. Most Ti frames last a very long time.