Is titanium reliable ?
 

Hi,
I'm interested about purchasing a titanium frame for TOURING. I usually travel with a heavy load (about 60 kg + my own weight). Some people told me this material will be too flexible, because of the weight to support and the dealer told me (no surprise here!) there won't be any problem...
If there is a person familiar with titanium frame, especially for touring, please tell me your opinion.:)
Have a good day!:)

In my experience and among my bikes (road riding but not touring) Ti is the most flexible. This does not necessarily equate to lack of strength or fatigue resistance. Of course a lot depends on the specific design and implementation. My expectation and belief is that a Ti bike from reputable company that was designed for touring would be supremely reliable, and perhaps the best choice of material for the purpose.

The Lynskey Sportive is designed for touring.

I know this is your first post but you should ask this in the Loung Distance or Touring Forums.

If you want a very knowledgeable opinion, ask Raymond Parker on his site.
http://veloweb.ca/

Is Ti reliable? Yes. Very.

Is it flexible? Yes, and that makes it a great material for a Rando or Touring bike. Manufacturing techniques and design have changed since the early Ti bikes and they have become much stiffer where needed for efficient power transfer.

Ti is like any other material. How you design and build with it determines whether it's flexy or stiff enough to knock the fillings out of your teeth, not the material itself.

Early Ti bikes were too flexy until builders got used to the material and started building Ti bikes with techniques, tubing sizes and thicknesses appropriate to Ti, rather than building them in the same way they built steel bikes.

Your problem is that you need a real touring bike.

Most ti bikes are like that Sportive, more of a general purpose bike.

And custom ti is very expensive.

This is a very, very good touring bike..

http://gunnarbikes.com/site/wp-conte...2984334495.jpg



http://gunnarbikes.com/site/bikes/grand-tour/

Well, the Gunnar is quite similar to the Sportive in geometry which puts it in the same category of also ran touring bikes. Good loaded touring bikes are ones like Bruce Gordon BLT, Surly LHT, Soma Saga, Co-Motion Americano and Trek 520. I'd put the Cannondale touring bikes in the same category, if they were still being made.

Interesting thread on the Sportive. http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...8#post12999068

Reliable, (until failure) , though may be less practical.

IF you have a primary use for a light sports frame/ cross bike,
and take some trips with your touring gear aboard,
and a decent credit line on the card, to stay indoors at hotels,
AKA, credit card touring
but mostly ride un laden,

Then Ti as a weather resistant, light, flexable shock dampening metal will be suitable..
S and S even machine their coupler system in titanium, to build into the frame..


But.. ( anecdote follows. )

I needed a frame repair in Ireland, the welding shop that fixed it,
primarily made A/C heating ducts of Stainless steel,

so Now, repaired in the field, my steel frame is better than new,
and I rode on for months, thereafter,
[other than burned paint]

Ti bike, if any material problems, you have to end the trip, there, and go home..

A lot of the local randonneurs (including the most-RUSA-miles and most-UMCA-miles guy from last year) ride titanium bikes, for what that's worth. They tend to ride light, not heavy.

If touring then how remote will you be getting? 1/2 way up the Andes and I doubt you could get a Ti or Aluminium frame repaired if it broke. But you will always find someone that can weld steel.

Chainstay... 425 versus 445 (450 is the typical touring length)
Fork Rake 45 versus 50

The Grand Tour is quite close to typical loaded touring geometry.
The Sportive isn't.

call some of the builders and UCI the bike building and mechanic school in Ashland, OR

Only if you pay for a marquee brand name, the weight weenie treatment with butted tubes, and/or cosmetic flourishes like tapered chain stays.

XACD will build and ship a custom frame for under $900. Habenero will handle all of the details going into an XACD build, prepare the frame here, and accept warranty returns for $1300 (which is less than the Gunnar with custom geometry) Smaller builders' custom prices start under $2000 like NTP in San Francisco which is not a cheap city.

another excellent touring bike is Koga Miyata,
the NL company sells a fully equipped bike [not stripped down
to shift accessory sales to retail margins]

Mine already had Racks , mudguards , a Taillight on the rack , Trekking bars ,
Magura Hydraulic rim brakes , 2 kickstands (one on the front rack), B17,
suspension seatpost .. Pump, bottles , etc.

un fortunately for the US , no dealer network.. , one dealer listed.

{I scored a 2nd Hand Bike , here)


but with their "signature program , a menu of frame models and sizes,
and list of components

You could Also, get a near custom bike , sent to a dealer near an airport,
say AMS or CPH,
take public transport from the airport to the designated bike shop,
and stuff the panniers and go..

???

132 lbs?

What are you carrying? Lead bricks? How much do you weigh?

Outside of cargo/utility bikes, very few "normal" touring bicycles made out of anything will take that sort of load "reliably".

You either need to carry much less or get something much more overbuilt than normal.

Load on the bike is static weight. The rider weighs a lot more but the rider can do a lot to reduce the loading stress on the bike.

His real problem is that he needs to carry less stuff.

A "real" touring bike isn't designed to carry 132 lbs (plus the rider).

The Gunnar is lovely but not magic.

Run a search on the CGOAB site, there are quite a few people that have toured on Titanium frames, some stock and some custom. Titanium itself is a reliable metal, the question probably should be about the frame maker rather than the material, and how they build the bike.

FWIW I had one of the early Teledyne Titan framesets and mine failed. At the time I was a lightweight rider ~135#. The bike was interesting to ride. I was light enough that the only way I could flex the frame was to sprint out of the saddle. Bigger guys got flex under regular riding conditions.

Aaron :)

I wondered about all that weight.

But not much, everybody tries to make things lighter after a bit.

The Gunnar is the sort of thing I'd get if I still carried a tent.

It may not be magic, but their bikes are something special.

Oops. I was looking at the Backroad (listed under touring on the Lynskey site.)

Just wouldn't spend a pile to get a Titanium frame, as a tour bike build.

but consider more a situation of already owning a bike
you feel comfortable riding on for weeks on end,
and it happens to be a Ti frame, so you go on a few trips on it.
packing some stuff in panniers.. :rolleyes:

I agree. Providing it's tough and large enough. I have a GT Xizang, a hardtail titanium mountain bike, hand built in 1995 in Longmont, Colorado. I bought her new in '95 and she's held up great for many miles. I'm thinking the GT 'Triple-Triangle' design might have something to do with her extra strength.

The only fear is, if something should break thousands of miles from home, where to find a competent titanium weld shop? I've thought the thing to do would be to pack her up and ship her to a custom titanium bike builder, such as Black Sheep Bicycles in Ft. Collins, Colorado. They're more than competent enough to do a better-than-new fix. But that would require me to have the ability to get a temporary replacement ride, and to pay for shipping, perhaps a long way from civilization.

Thank you for the info!
Cheers