Originally Posted by merlinextraligh
I travel with my bike from time to time, and have been interested in the Ritchie Breakaway for that reason. One major hesitation with the Ritchey Ti Cf bike though is the CF stays. One thing I like about packing my Merlin is no worries about scratching paint or clear coat. I don't understand why Ritchie didn't make a full Ti breakaway, so you don't have to worrry about scratching the CF stays in transit.
I have some fairly good padding and wrapping material that will protect the finish of the CF portion fairly well and I am resigned to getting some scratches on the CF parts. While I agree that I would have preferred an all ti frame for its nearly indestructable nature, I like the CF parts for lighter weight and some road buzz reduction. Also it looks totally bling ;-)
Note that Ritchey does make an all ti breakaway CX frame, but it is quite a bit heavier. You can get S&S coupled ti frames from DEAN and Serotta as well. Each of these can be specified either all ti or ti and CF. The DEAN frames are not too expensive, but the Serottas are quite stiff (price, I don't know about the ride ;-)
Ira