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Old 03-06-21 | 07:41 AM
  #2992  
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cat0020
Ride more, eat less
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Joined: Feb 2007
Posts: 2,168
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From: Philla PA, Hoboken NJ, Brooklyn NY

Bikes: Too many but never enough.

Shaping & tubing manipulation in titanium is similar process that steel, but the tooling required are much more expensive and those tool fail at higher frequency than steel work tooling.
Cost to fabricate different shaped, tappered, non-uniformed diameter titanium tubes is significantly higher than steel or aluminum.
Seems to me the pinnacle of ti frame tube shaping & drawing had passed when large ti frame fabricator like Litespeed stopped making custom shaped & drawn 6/4 ti tubing.
Larger headset bearings, thru-axles, those impact that make frame stability under higher stress conditions do not apply to riders of ALL shapes & sizes.
If you're a lighter rider as myself, the "impact" of those improvements don't quite justify the cost increase, when compared to a used ti frame that can be found under $500.
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