Originally Posted by
Phantoj
I thought you cracked a Ti frame, think it was a Merlin..? Am I confused?
That was my 1991 Merlin, yes it cracked in two places with about 30K miles on it. The Ibis is really a much higher quality frame, better tubing (3/2.5 butted tubing, higher quality build).
Ti performance won't degrade, as long as it doesn't break. Once it breaks you fix it or leave it out with the trash. I did the latter with the Merlin. The vast majority of Ti frames don't break, but in all fairness, VERY few actually get ridden 30-50K + miles like the bicycles I have owned. My guess is that 95+% of Ti frames will not break even if ridden hard 50-100K miles and will retain all their favorable performance characteristics.
I have a bunch of bicycles now, so my Ibis Ti Road only gets ridden 3000 miles annually (approx). I use it as my foul weather bike, so it sees a fair amount of rain, muck, road salt, etc. But I think with the reduced usage it may last me another 13+ years. As long as it works I'll keep it on the road. Love how the bike feels, and it's relatively light (built up bike is only 17 lbs and change).