Grassroot

I am building a third bamboo fixed frame. Paragon ran out of their limited run bond-in ti horizontal track dropouts (track ends). They are just like weld on dropouts, but with plugs welded on so they can be epoxied into the bamboo seat stays and carbon fiber chainstays.

Anybody know of anything out there, preferrably ti (for low thermal expansion coefficient)? Otherwise, I am going to have to get something custom made for not much less than $300, and I am a poor man.

Keith Young
Asheville

flipflop

Call around to some machine shops/race car fab places.

Someone, somewhere, ought to be running some titanium goodies.

Live Wire 

Why not make them out of steel? You could do them yourself for not much $ that way. What do you mean by "thermal expansion coefficient"? I can't imagine the drops would get hot enough for this to be a concern as you see a lot of aluminum drops on carbon bikes.

Grassroot

Yes, I could use steel, preferrably stainless. Ti is the way to go for longevity because of its corrosion resistance and low coefficient of thermal expansion. Example: Its not as dynamic under normal temp changes, so the bond area isn't as stressed by the difference in expansion and contraction of dissimilar materials. Plus, corrosion (galvonnic with aluminum) can cause bond failure. IMO, for longevity, abuse, and a good bond, ti hardware is best.

Keith Young