Originally Posted by
Palomar01
Dont know if Ti will survive a really hard crash though. It's a lot like steel that it "springs back" to its original shape but it can only do that so much.
Ti does have quite a few features that can't be done with any other material. It is very resistant to corrosion so it does not require a clearcoat of paint to protect the metal. If it does get scratched, the scratch can be smoothed out. There is no paint to chip (if the frame is unpainted). It can also withstand very high temperatures--on of the reasons the SR-71 Blackbird flying at Mach 4 is made of Ti--AL could not withstand the high temps at those speeds!
CF is a very good material and easily adopted to any shape and resilience. But it requires way more care. Since they use CF for the lightest frames they use thinner material so they easily crack when stressed in the wrong way. When it cracks it's really impossible to repair. Still, nothing beats the bling of CF. They just look so sexy! They really need to form more shapely Ti tubes. I'm thinking hydroform and/or more pronounced boxes and triangle shapes. That will help put the bling back into Ti.
Really?
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Last edited by HigherGround; 05-30-11 at 10:07 AM.
Reason: changing bold face to make the post more clear