Kirk Precision Magnesium Frames
 

Looking thorough the Mountain Bike Legacy archives, I ran across the hype for the Kirk Precision magnesium frame bicycles. This must have looked like a good idea on paper, but you would be hard pressed to find one today. The joke at the time was that if you were lost, you could carve a few shavings off the frame and light them on fire.


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Very interesting thanks for sharing :thumb: because I recall that Merida and Jamis also proposed in the 2000's-20104S TIG welded magnesium frames

The BB shells had a (deserved) reputation for cracking, especially (mostly?) the MTB ones.
I saw one on a boot sale table once and that was the reason it was there.

yep, brittle.

the Porsche 917 had much magnesium and it was not publicized. Mark Donahue answered a Road & Track journalist that the Porsche CanAm chassis was made of unobtanium.

I just read about these guys last week:
https://www.vaastbikes.com/company/

LIGHTER, STRONGER, PROFOUNDLY BETTER—SUPER MAGNESIUM.

VAAST Bikes® are the first to use ALLITE® SUPER MAGNESIUM™. This high-strength alloy features excellent shock absorption properties, weighs 33% less than Aluminum and 50% less than Titanium by volume, and is significantly stronger than both. Through the exclusive use of this eco-friendly metal, we have achieved a ride feel like no other.

Worked on one several years ago (I think it was a Kirk?), I-beam model. It was a total noodle, and I couldn't see the appeal, other than the novelty. A modern mid-range aluminum bike was just as light, and rode better.

I think the other Kirk (Dave) does way better!

I followed the 1990 Tour de France by backpack. I was wondering around some small town after the end of a stage (Epinal? Besançon?) and stumbled into the small parking lot of a hotel where some Japanese mechanics/engineers were working on a magnesium frame. I forget if one of the teams was trying it out but it looked like nothing I'd ever seen then or now. I don't speak Japanese, but I pointed to the frame and asked "magnesium?". They nodded and let me get a close up look. Somewhere in my files I have a photo of one of the mechanics standing with the bike.

Some lower-level pro road team got sponsored by them, I forget what year. Phil Anderson was signed by them. It had been a while since he had won anything, his best years behind him, so he couldn't be too picky about what team he signed with. He posed for the team pics with the Kirk, even a pic of him biting the frame, but he never rode one in a race. They were both heavier and whippier than his steel frame, so he just rode that with the team's paint job on it, maybe Kirk decals too? It was obvious from a mile away that it wasn't a Kirk Mag though.. I was surprised they let him do that, but the bikes really were terrible.

Mark B

Ha ha yes I think just before seeing the bike, I bumped into Phil Anderson and his teammates hanging around the team car. I have his autograph somewhere...

As mentioned in their marketing, the Kirk frame was die cast. Magnesium is great for die casting. Die casting is not great for bike frames. Perhaps they should have Venn diagramed that before investing the money.

There have been a couple of welded tube magnesium frames over the years. Paketa and Segal come to mind.

Motorcycle frames are progressing to ever-greater use of die-casting, which lends itself equally to aluminum and to it's alu-mag alloys.

These bikes were at one time advertised by showing that the frame could be unaffected by driving a car over it!

The Geometry table suggests that perhaps only one frame size was offered, roughly a 55 or 56cm for the road version.

I have a white one in excellent condition, though it was built up with modest early-eighties components.

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Well, I'll admit to liking how they look in the metal as well. Here's one I came across in Italy a few years ago:

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I'm glad to read they are crap and not available in my size or I'd probably be spending silly money on one of these at some point. :o

There is a Paketa on this big (260 people) Tandem ride.

by far the lightest tandem I’ve ever lifted.

Wow. What a waste of a C-Record group.

I have two Mg bikes. Carbon is easier and cheaper to make. No other frame that I have ridden deadens road buzz like Mg

If you're going to ride Magnesium you gotta go Pinarello. 2009 - the last year of the magnesium Dogmas. They did make a few w/mag stays, too, but this was standard.
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I don't have an as-built pic, but it's sporting Campy 10s Ergo Record/Chorus with Bora wheels. Not exactly C&V.
I pull it out when I'm riding some ugly hills or longer rides.
It rides nice, but mostly just laughs at me - "Is this all you've got?" :lol:

agreed :giver:

Jan Heine rides one in the latest bicycle quarterly, I haven't finished reading the article, but the bit I have read suggested he like the Vaast