Originally Posted by terry b
Depending on what tubeset is used and how they're shaped and tacked together, ti rides just like steel, aluminum or carbon fiber.
On average, decent ride and performance.
I'll agree that how a bike rides has a lot to do with things other than materials. But I dont think its possible to build a Ti bike that will ride like an extremely stiff CF bike. If you look at frame flex data (there was a good comparison of flexing between a number of steel, al, ti and Cf bikes in Velonews), the Ti bikes were not anywhere near as rigid as the pro tour Cf bikes that were tested.
In my personal experience, my Merlin Extralight, which is designed to be stiff, with oversized, ovalized, butted tubes, is not even close to as stiff as my CF bike. I doubt a Litespeed Vortex is anywhere near as stiff as a CF bike designed to be stiff.
I guess you could make a Ti bike as stiff if you made the tubes about 1/2" thick, but then it would be so much heavier, the weight would alter the ride, and it would have zero market appeal.
Thus I think its an overstatement to say the ride isn't in part dependent on material selection.