Originally Posted by raven1
So what I've always wondered is, if you have a Ti bike with a carbon fork and especially with a carbon seatstay, does it feel more like a carbon bike than a Ti bike?
I'd imagine you still get a different feel from the rest of the Ti frame and the bottom bracket, but the main points of "feel" for the road surface is the fork and the seatstay, no?
Which leads to a brief question for all the Ti afficionados as I ponder a Ti frame purchase in the near future: given the choice of a Ti frame with a carbon seatstay or not which would you recommend? In other words, will I lose the particular Ti feel with those carbon parts?
I have ridden a Litespeed Classic for the last 8 years and last Wednesday crashed in a crit so I picked up a new Merlin Cielo because I bent the frame on the Classic. The Cielo is a Ti lugged carbon tubed bike. It is just as lively as a Ti bike but dampens like carbon and is so much stiffer then my litespeed. I love the thing. I think I will never go back to a full Ti bike for a everyday ride and will stay with the material blend do to the fact you get the best characteristics of both of them.
I rode a chromoly frame before the litespeed and have ridden a Trek postal bike from about 5 years ago and to date this new Merlin is the best ride and feel for a everday bike that I have found. I wasn't too fond of the full carbon feel. To me this feels more like my old chromoly frame but a heck of a lot stiffer.
