roshgosh

Hi unworthy1, yes this frame has the "bi-axially oval down tube". Here is another photo which shows it up a little better.

roshgosh

Yes they're broken off. Will have to get them rebrazed.

rat fink

I think he was referring to just the frame, As in, no CF stays on an aluminum bike, etc.

unworthy1

interesting that Merckx wanted the same type of down tube on both this Columbus Ti frame as for his Litespeed-built Ti frames. Did this shape down tube show up on any of his steel or aluminum frames of the late '90s?

KonAaron Snake 

There is a shop that sells on ebay called something like ti fabrications (I forget the exact name, but can find it if you're interested) based in Seattle who will build a ti fork for $900ish.

Panasonic's ti bike had a ti fork...most others didn't as I recall.

RFC

If you want to have some fun, call the marketing guy at Lynskey (his name escapes me right now). He is a longtime and former Litespeed employee who now works for Lynskey. Very pleasant and chatty. He has been very helpful to me in identifying older Litespeed frames. He would be the best source on whether this is a Litespeed frame and its history.

vjp

I would just file them flush and then put the circular vinyl paint protectors over the area. You can't "braze" ti it has to be welded and it is very hot which means the paint is toast. The value in this bike is the original paint, chipped, scratched or dented, repaint it and....

The bike had a painted carbon fork originally, with a threaded steerer for a quill stem. Not a ti fork.

unworthy1

titanium is typically welded, but it can be brazed (or perhaps soldered is the proper term) but this is a specialized process using materials that most Ti frame welders would not have at-hand nor have experience using. Still, the torch will ruin the paint even at lower "braze/solder" temperatures.
https://www.titanium-brazing.com/products.html#3

vjp

Yes, aerospace specialty processes, I meant with bicycles, my mistake.

unworthy1

nothing new under the sun, brazed and lugged titanium:
https://www.classicrendezvous.com/USA...oroni_main.htm
but to go back to the Merckx frame in question: I wonder if a usable bond could be made with high-quality epoxy? I don't know how much pressure those cable guides have to sustain but there are some very good epoxies available with great shear and peel strength specs. That's what I'd try.

vjp

Yes, I thought about this bike. I asked Pino about it in 91 or 92 and he was really vague about the success of it. He "soldered" the tubes, they made one bike, I am not really sure if it was ridden more than around the block.

I also thought about an epoxy, it would work, they are just guides for the cables, no adjustment, there are still shifter bosses.

Italuminium

Good lord, a Jens voigt frame. On this bike, you'd have to be pulling pelotons for hours on end @ 45 km/h... Good luck! The guy is a bad-ass cyclist... Anyway, 9 spped record will look awesome on this bike!

unworthy1

The story I read (and it might only be that) is that Pino and Cecil Behringer made 2 frames successfully (and there were at least two earlier attempts that were failures), one a track bike and one a road bike. Took them to a tradeshow in Rome and famously challenged anybody to ride any bike against theirs down the Spanish Steps. Pino made the ride alone as there were no takers...the bike (and Pino) survived. Further legend has that both frames logged thousands of miles "in competition" and were stripped and inspected then repainted with no failure. Stories also say that the "brazing" was done in both a quartz-argon furnace and an industrial vacuum furnace that substituted nitrogen for argon gas resulting in the finished material to be 'nitrided' titanium.
OK, thread hi-jack over and out.

Millfield Velo

Hey mate, did you finish this build? Pics and details please!

CyclesMakaron

sorry: team GAN 1998, after TdF - Credit Agricole

DMC707

9 speed Dura Ace is the only groupset that makes sense for this bike since it is documented in the photo above

RobbieTunes

I don't know what I was thinking years ago, but DA7700 is the only thing I'd put on that.


OK, maybe DA9000, but the OP wants period-correct, and 7700 checks off the two most important categories:
1-perhaps the best group ever
2-it was on it.

DMC707

Wow -- just looked at the original post! Cant believe I got pulled in by a zombie thread -- old thread or not , that frameset is still worthy of some lighthearted banter and I hope the OP has went on to build it right and get some use out of it ---- Although for me, a Jens Voigt frameset would probably be a wall hanger

RobbieTunes

Jens would want it ridden.

ThermionicScott 

I did a little searching and here is how he built it up.



From Post Your Titaniums

RobbieTunes

Hell yeah.

shoff535

Looks fantastic!! Nicely done. If you'd let me know I could have set you up with a set of magnesium TIME pedals .. oh well, guess I'll keep them on the CIOCC