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Old 07-20-09, 03:39 PM
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seeker333
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Originally Posted by Bekologist
titanium has low cycle fatigue strength versus steel's nearly unlimited fatigue cycle, doesn't it? or am i mistaken about this?
Got it backwards - ti has greatest resistance to fatigue of all framebuilding materials.

The only frames I've broken were steel. It had far more to do with the dropouts (breezer/weak butt joints) chosen for easy/cheap assembly and inadequate braze at the joint, than the actual frame material.

Many (cheap chinese) steel frame are more likely to break, IMO, because they're assembled (design, parts, miters, joints) so cheaply as part of the goal of making a cheap frame or bike. It's not the steel tubes, it's the crappy joints that cause frame breaks.

Titanium bicycling tubing is very expensive - a downtube alone costs >$100. So, ti frames tend to be better built because more care is put into joining these expensive tubes into a frame that's going to be sold at relatively high profit.

I doubt a Thorn frame is likely to break. Clearly they are really dedicated to their design, custom made dropouts, charge enough for them that they can take time to build them well. Also, I doubt Thorn is completely unbiased on the subject of frame material. Steel is a wonderful material for building bikes, if you have the expertise and intent to build them right.

Ti makes a great frame. Very durable. The relatively high cost is offset somewhat by a potentially longer useful life as a bike frame. Plus there's no paint to scratch up.

Last edited by seeker333; 07-20-09 at 03:57 PM.
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