Road Cycling - Titanium owners read this>>>>>>

Greetings fellow asphalt munchers,

I was just wondering amongst the Ti frame owners here - With all the proliferation and marketing hailstorm about how wonderful Carbon is for everything short of a foodstuff :

1) What made you decide on Titanium?

and

2) How much did you pay? ( only interested in frame prices )

also

3) Did you purchase stock or custom?

finally

4) Did you assume the builder knew what the heck they were doing in terms of spec'ing the correct fork with the correct rake?

Answer these vital questions and help one of the little framebuilder type guys with his overt, yet still guerilla market research. :eek: :D

Big Ti discussions going on over at www.cyclingplus.co.uk at the minute.
A lot of us are thinking of sourcing straight from China, at this site http://www.xacd.com.cn where the frames are averaging at $420 + shipping, works out at about £280, which is about half normal price. Only problem is reliability.

read here:
http://www.cyclingplus.co.uk/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=16317

www.belfastandbeyond.com

1) What made you decide on Titanium?

(Reported, alleged, ...) durability, ride characteristics and looks.


2) How much did you pay? ( only interested in frame prices )

A lot. 1600 Euro for the frame only (Litespeed Arenberg). The good news is that the bike shop gave me a very fair deal on all the other components.


3) Did you purchase stock or custom?

The 61 cm stock frame suits me fine. I used a combination of the usual formula's, some test riding on comparable bikes, and my gut feeling to establish that I needed the biggest stock frame available.


4) Did you assume the builder knew what the heck they were doing in terms of spec'ing the correct fork with the correct rake?

Sort of. I knew that the fork I choose (Reynolds Ouzo Pro) is compatible with the Litespeed Arenberg/Tuscany type of frame.

Good luck with the guerilla, Thylacine.

Pretty much what Bruco said, except I went Tuscany and bought a whole bike stock w/ Ultegra, so I can't give any frame price info for you. Yes, I assumend Litespeed knew what they were doing.

Ride quality lived up to expectations, longevity will have to wait and see.

Bought my stock Litespeed Classic FRAME for $1800 (polished) from Colorado cyclist back in 1993. Bought it for steel ride quality, frame longevity, & coolness factor. It is still my primary road bike with an 8-spd Record groupo.

George

Great read on ti in velo news i just got. In short it said its what the pros ride because it has everything you want.

In short it said its what the pros ride

...I assume you mean for training. In competition, they seem to favor carbon and Al... whatever's lightest.

Greetings fellow asphalt munchers,

I was just wondering amongst the Ti frame owners here - With all the proliferation and marketing hailstorm about how wonderful Carbon is for everything short of a foodstuff :

1) What made you decide on Titanium?

and

2) How much did you pay? ( only interested in frame prices )

also

3) Did you purchase stock or custom?

finally

4) Did you assume the builder knew what the heck they were doing in terms of spec'ing the correct fork with the correct rake?

Answer these vital questions and help one of the little framebuilder type guys with his overt, yet still guerilla market research. :eek: :D


1) Longevity..
2) $695 + $200 for custom sizing (Habanero)
3) See #2
4) Yup. :D My frame is a cross/tourer with a Winwood Muddy carbon.


Thanks for asking..... :p

Thanks for the feedback everyone. It's a good start.

Actually my forks are made for me by XACD. I've been happy with the quality ( sort of ) and I'm currently doing some design work for them. It's all a bit sketchy as the Chinese have no respect fo Intellectual Property and you have little legal recourse if something goes haywire. Read: I'm heavily covering my @$$.

A couple of things. First up, I don't and will never use them for my frames. The guy who welds my frames helped pioneer titanium bicycle framebuilding. He has taught many of the head welders at many of the preeminant ti bike houses and he is what I consider to be one of the best. It was a miracle that he decided to take a punt with this little bike company called Thylacine, but I'm sure glad to have him on board.

The frame is the thing with my brand on it, so it's a no compromise deal. The forks on the other hand are good for the money, but no art, and I'm not sure how long I'm going to stock them for.

Keep them Ti justifications commin'

Well, good luck with your venture! If I didn't love my bike so much, I'd offer to be a guinea pic for one of your prototype frames! :D

I about chocked at the price of my TI Litespeed arenberg, (don't know frame price) but as a mechanical engineer I knew its advantages and disadvantages (did my homework). But bottom line, once I road it the decision was made. After 1000 miles, absolutely no regrets. Thylacine - I fully understand the comment on Intellectual Property. Watch your self very very close.

[QUOTE=roadbuzz]...I assume you mean for training. In competition, they seem to favor carbon and Al... whatever's lightest.[/QUOT

The sponsor will decide what they ride,not what they want to ride. I think it said if given the choice,it would be ti.

Well, good luck with your venture! If I didn't love my bike so much, I'd offer to be a guinea pig for one of your prototype frames! :D

Oh, they'll only be prototypes because they'll be my tubing spec and geometry, and have Thylacine decals on them. My welder has done hundreds of titanium frames....just not under the Thylacine banner.

That may change. ;)

This is my attempt to see what people think and to get a better feel for the Titanium market, find out what people like about them, how much they think is a fair price etc. In the interim I might get him to weld up a frame for me and see what I think.

Keep those responses commin.

The sponsor will decide what they ride,not what they want to ride. I think it said if given the choice,it would be ti.

http://www.canadiancyclist.com/racesy2k2/olympic_walton2.jpg

that sure as hell isn't a lemond.

not to mention how lance armstrong rode a litespeed for a while that was painted as a trek.

Oh, they'll only be prototypes because they'll be my tubing spec and geometry, and have Thylacine decals on them. My welder has done hundreds of titanium frames....just not under the Thylacine banner.

That may change. ;)

This is my attempt to see what people think and to get a better feel for the Titanium market, find out what people like about them, how much they think is a fair price etc. In the interim I might get him to weld up a frame for me and see what I think.

Keep those responses commin.

Best of luck to you.

I hope that the fact that your company is named after a now extinct animal isn't a foreshadowing.

-mark

The sponsor will decide what they ride,not what they want to ride. I think it said if given the choice,it would be ti.
Yeah, pretty much. I checked when I got home and it was:

the vast majority of pro racers today are seen on hyper-light aluminum or full-carbon rigs. Tellingly, however, many racers who get to pick or have to purchase their own equipment still choose titanium.

No arguing your point... Ti is a sweet ride and the VeloNews article would be good input for Thylacine and his original question.

It was a very interesting article and some nice insight.

I hope that the fact that your company is named after a now extinct animal isn't a foreshadowing. -mark

All I can say is, is that unlike other mythical creatures, this one actually used to ( or maybe still does ) exist! I guess thats a bonus. I wanted a name that was Australian without being cliche - I also like the mythical/cloning ethics slant too. Plus, it's one hella cool animal. Did you know it has a pouch?

Intersting slant on the 'What would sponsors ride if they could ride anything' question. One thing thats hidden from the buying public is how many frames and components sponsored riders go through. That certainly would be telling, but the Velonews article does shed some light on what the pros think, especially if they were voting with their own dollar.

I have two Ti bikes. One of them is a cross/touring bike. I bought the frame used for about $550. The other is also a cross bike that I also bought used and use for a singlespeed commuter.

I like that there's no paint to chip, and that the metal will never corrode. Cleaning usually involves wiping down with a cloth -- and then it looks as good as new, no exaggeration. Any painted bike will get harder and harder to keep clean as the paint gets nicked and chipped over time.

On the commuter, I sanded off the logos to keep it inconspicuous. Try doing that with any other material! With any other material, if you don't like the way it looks, you have keep the original paintjob or pay lots of money to get it stripped and repainted.


All that said, just because a bike is titanium doesn't mean that it'll last forever. It could fatigue and crack. See http://www.damonrinard.com/EFBe/frame_fatigue_test.htm. In this fatigue test, Al and carbon frames tended to hold up better than Ti and steel. These results are not inherent to the material, but rather the design of the frame. After all, Al has the worst fatigue life of any common bike-building metal -- but some Al frames survived this test because they were well designed. The tests were run in '97, so maybe frames are better designed in general now.... Also, you probably won't have a fatigue failure on any bike unless you ride the bike for tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of miles.

I bought titanium because of the quality of the ride and the lifetime guarantee of the frame. Mine is a Seven (custom) so I knew these guys knew what they were doing. The fit and the ride is beyond my wildest expections. My bike with Campy record was around 6K. If I had it to do all over again, I would buy the same bike - Love It!