btw, I think its "piqued" not peaked Just sayin'

It's also it's not its, in this case

Will a titanium frame eventually be available directly from swift? I'd buy one then, since the warranty would be for the lifetime of my bike.

At this time this is a private one-off being built for me with Peter's blessing. Once I get it and it's a great success, we could see if there is a way forwards. It would have to be a commercial success, or at least not result in a loss for Xootr. Stating the obvious.

The bike is expected at the end of June.

No problem. I'll wait and see how it goes. And if it's a success I'll order a xootr swift frame & fork when the time (hopefully) arrives. I'm in no rush - except to see pictures of what yours looks like. ;-)

Wonder what the shipping costs of a bike frame are from Brooklyn to New Zealand, and who's paying, Peter or you? By the way, when I ordered my Swift from Peter oh six years ago or something I think, it came with with defective bolt holes, and despite the warranty I had to pay the shipping back to NY from AZ, but peter said that what he'd do for me was exchange my aluminum frame for a new steel one when it went into production, but I guess it never did (I haven't been following the updates here in recent years, and in fact just recently went back to riding).

As for the inherent inevitability of aluminum cracking, I don't know. DC-3's are made of aluminum and many of them built in the 1930's are still flying.

I paid for the shipping of the replacement frame. This seems like the correct thing to me. For example, if we were in the same city and I drove my car to pick up a replacement frame under the guarantee, I would not expect to be reimbursed for fuel. The shipping of goods falls to the customer, it's their choice. I suppose there may be cases where the vendor also pays for shipping. For example if I returned an item of clothing due to size reasons, I pay the shipping back to the vendor but they would ship me a replacement free of charge.

First pics of the first Swift Ti:

beautiful titanium swift frame. :-)

I've been fence sitting on whether to buy a bike friday new world tourist for some time. Reading this post helped convince me that this would be a good company to buy a bike from.

Holy CRAP! That thing is SMOKIN!

Ooooh, aaaahh...

What's the weight? Like the second set of cable guides toward the rear of the top tube. Wish my frame had those. And those dropouts... do they taper to points as sharp as they look in the image?

Is this designed for the same fork?

More photos, provided by the frame builder...

I was faced with the difficult choice between weight and frame stiffness. I was very concerned that I would end up with a frame that is too flexible to be able to ride hard, so I chose to err on the side of caution and spec'ed thick-walled tubes for the main tubes. So from my weight calculations the tubing alone is about 1.8kg. The welds will add some so I expect 2kg or more.

The dropouts/track ends are quite pointy.

The fork geometry is the same as the stock Xootr fork but I ordered a nice Ti fork, plus Ti seatpost and Ti stem/riser.

the Ti swift was done well. i am very impressed with the welds. :-)

the frame reminds me of the montague folding bikes. :-)

Sweet looking frame.. are you going 451 with this? what drivetrain? where're the rest of the bits???

I don't have it in my grubby hands yet. These are pics sent for my approval. Once all the bits are ready and I am happy, the builder will send it to me. Then the bike building starts. I tried to do as much as possible in Ti.

451 wheels, I left off the V-brake pivots. I will have to assess the ride quality, and based on that, might start a second version. I already have some ideas for improvement. Disc brake mounts might be one of them, so wheel size is an easy choice.

Jur,

The pix look great!
I would be very interested in a group buy for this Ti frame.
In fact, with a couple of additional changes, I would commit to two frames.

Yes, some diamond frame aluminum bikes will take a long time to fail. But on average, titanium can be passed down over the generations like a good watch and aluminum will die a painful death before you do. Bacchetta, a recumbent manufacturer, has sold a lot of bikes and they have reported frame failures on their carbon and aluminum models, but never a failure on any of their titanium bikes. Though I did speak with one fellow who had a broken stay on a litespeed.

Jur--No question you will have the coolest folder out there!

For any Ti lovers, I envisage the following process:

1. I get my frame, fork seatpost etc etc, build the bike up.
2. I go for rides. Many rides.
3. I tear myself away and write a review of the bike, plus any recommendations for improvement.
4. We liaise with Peter Reich about how to proceed, since the design belongs to him. Peter gave me permission to get one successful frame built, but not to go into a business arrangement.

My design tweaks:

* I made the twin top tube design change because the builder did not have a large enough oval tube. I did some engineering calcs on the tube torsional stiffness and tried to get something close to the aluminium version's stiffness.

* I designed an easier-to-produce pivot for the fold, and a way to make a pivot on the dual tube system.

* I made a small change to the geometry to accommodate a slightly shorter fork.

* I made the top tube 25mm longer for a slightly taller average rider.

* I omitted the brake pivots. I will use this one with road brakes.

* I added cable stops, cable tie points and a cable pulley boss at the bottom rear of the seat tube for easier derailleur cable installations.

I don't regard any of these as radical enough to justify calling it anything else but a true blue Swift.

Disc brakes,...that's what I'd luv on a Ti Swift!!!

Actually I just realised that is a mistake. The left side should have had the 2, and the right the 1. Email sent.

I have also put in a query whether disc brake fittings could be fitted with no problems.

Woohoo! Discs would be a killer on this!

jur, sign me up for the next batch of Ti Swifts. Alfine 11 IGH with mechanical disc brakes. Hydraulic disc brakes have more stopping power and about 1000x more maintenance problems.
In addition to the longer maintube, did you opt for the 12" handlepost?