Cyclocross - Ti Forks

I am looking for imfo and impressions of Ti forks. I had wondered why nobody uses them on new bikes, everyone uses CF. What are the road riding characteristics as compared to a CF fork.

I can get a new Ti road fork for $255 shipped, but I want to know whether it would be worth it or not.

If you make the titanium thick enough so that the fork is sufficiently stiff, it is heavier than competing materials.

Titanium is triangulated and supported in a frame but not in a fork.

There are horses for courses and materials for purposes.

I'm no metallurgist, but it seems to me that one hardly sees bikes equipped with titanium forks these days. Back in the mid 90's when Ti was just gaining in popularity I do recall many of the Ti forks were quite flexy. I personally would stick with a carbon fork - or steel if you need something extremely stout. My cross bike has a steel fork and rides great - the only bad thing is that it's as heavy as a boat anchor...

Ti is not a "flexy" material. You have to look at the tubing diameter used. Aluminum is far less stiff than Ti, but people continuously claim that it is too rigid.

Calfee Designs has a Ti fork. A friend of mine has one on a carbon frame and it makes the ride much smoother.

While I have a carbon fork on my cross bike, I have a Spicer rigid ti fork on my single speed mountain bike and absolutely love it. With disc brakes it pulses a bit during hard braking, but so does the Airborne carbon fork on my CX when I use salmon pads. I mainly went with the carbon fork on my cross bike because I was able to get one for 1/3 the cost new off of ebay and figured that the carbon might absorb more road vibration when using it for road training.

I've seen a few people with Sibex ti forks on their cross bikes at local races and would definitely consider one for a dedicated cross race bike.