Road Cycling - Airborne Titanium Valkyrie

Hi-

I am a new rider and a new subscriber. I am interested in what you all think about titanium bikes and Airborne Valkyrie in particular.

Any reactions?

yip - I've got 1.

Superb ride, comfort beyond belief. Double century last month on consecutive days,
the bike just sucked up all the bumps.
Not an out and out race bike, but with a good set of wheels, it's up to anything.
If distance is your thing then this is the bike.

I owned one of these too. I raced this bike in a crit once. It was the best cornering bike I have ever ridden before or since. ..and boy did it absorb the road. I have very fond memories of that bike(Valkyrie). It just carved those corners like a hot knife carves butter.

The only part of the Valkyrie that's attributable to Airborne is the frame. The rest of the bike is up to you. The frame is about 4 to 6 ounces heavier than a comparable Litespeed. Litespeed is my American made gold standard for comparing bikes. However, Litespeed is a lot more $'s and they don't offer an Audax configuration which is a no-cost option on the Valkyrie. I studied at some length the Valkyrie and the Carpe Diem. If you do a google search, you'll find a high degree of owner satisfaction with the Valkyrie and Airborne in general. I wound up with the Ti Carpe Diem which has excellent fit/finish. Litespeed has nothing comparable to the Carpe Diem either.

Plan A was to order the frame set though my lbs who is an Airborne dealer. It took a few weeks for the lbs to even get a price which was a couple of hundred above the on-line price. The dealer couldn't get the few components I wanted as they were supposedly available only on complete bikes. Apparently, Airborne doesn't really support their dealers and prefers to sell on-line. I ordered the bike on a Monday afternoon, including those components which were unobtainable by the dealer, and it arrived the following Friday.

The ride is superior than my old steel touring frame even though the Carpe Diem has slightly more aggressive frame angles. It smoothes out both the small and large bumps, yet the bike is very lively; you want to ride more because it's more enjoyable.

Al

Hi,
you are looking for a bike that you really like, that has a reasonable price, and does what you want it to. If you could tell us what sort of riding you do (or want to do) and what sort of budget
you have, we would have a better idea. How tall are you, how much do you weigh?