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02-14-22 | 08:20 PM

#3110

rekmeyata

Senior Member

Joined: Sep 2010

Posts: 8,954

Likes: 388

From: NE Indiana

Bikes: 2020 Masi Giramondo 700c; 2013 Lynskey Peloton; 1992 Giant Rincon; 1989 Dawes needs parts; 1985 Trek 660; 1985 Fuji Club; 1984 Schwinn Voyager; 1984 Miyata 612; 1977 Raleigh Competition GS

Quote:

Originally Posted by xseal

Can't speak to analogies, and I'm biased, but when you see how Moots hand makes their frames from domestically sourced Ti, double welding each joint, you can't help but feel confident in a "life time" frame. Cool people too. I love these small manufacturers. I agree its a matter of $$, but if that is less important, great to buy from folks like Moots (next bike will be an Argonaut, carbon).

This is an excerpt for a Lynskey letter: "Our tubing is grade 1, aerospace grade, 3/2.5 seamless tubing. Probably .034 - .035 in wall thickness. We have several suppliers around the world and here domestically that we deal with, depending on the tube specs. So there is no "one place" that our tubing is sourced from. All tubing is 100% first quality aerospace grade certified, and we also have several quality control testing that we do once the tubing is received. Our butting process is external butting, and we may take wall thicknesses down from .035 to potentially .028, again, depending on the model and which tube within the design." So as you can see it depends on the cost point of the bike if Lynskey will use US sourced titanium or not, all of Moots bikes are expensive so I could see them using US sourced TI. Having said that, Russian TI is actually better than US sourced TI. OT4 Aerospace titanium which is an equivalent to international standard Ti - 4Al - l.5Mn; Manganese and Vanadium are interchangeable in Ti alloys; Russia uses Mn because it is readily available in Russia. Russian OT4 would fall somewhere between 3/2 and 6/4 and be closer to 6/4. I can't find anything about Chinese TI. Also, the reason US sourced TI is more expensive is the American labor cost to refine it, doesn't mean that US sourced titanium is a better alloy.

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