nos

Anyone know of a maker out there? I would like to get as much Ti on my Ti Magmaa as possible.

Thylacine

You need to go see a doctor about that.

Serpico

no one makes Ti drop bars, something about the shape

lots of Ti flat bars though (Jones bar is sweet)

good luck

Patriot

I think the reason why, is that the stress put on a pair of drop bars never gets to a point where Ti is necessary. Aluminum is more than adequate in strength, and also lighter, so aluminum is still the preferred choice for most bicycle components except for nuts and bolts etc, since they generally undergo more stress.

Plus, Ti drop bars would probably be alot more flexxy than Aluminum.

nos

I remember seeing some titanium bikes that had a curved dropout area like on Yeti bikes. So shape and strenght being compromised shouldn't be an issue.

sunninho

Blasphemy coming from an OCP, but all true. Go with a carbon bar, instead, as it is stiff, possibly lighter and more foregiving (dampening) than an aluminum bar.

531Aussie

someone said here a few weeks ago that ti is difficult to bend during production

Patriot

Ti IS extremely difficult to bend or forge with low temperature. You need to bring it close to melting point in order to form a piece of Ti tubing. The other option is to machine it.

Imagine a set of hollowed out, Ti drop bars, machined entirely from solid stock.

Holy Smokes!!! Now, that would be EXPENSIVE!!!!

dfw

Ti tubes can be bent in the same way alluminum and steel tubes are and on the same equipment.

You might not be able to get Ti to bend to the radii required for drop tubes because Ti has a tendancy to want to spring back to it's original shape. You would have to bend it much more than the final shape required and this may not be possible in the case of typical drop bars.

For every type of tubing, there is a maximum bend radius you can achieve without breaking the metal. I would expect Ti to have a much higher maximum bend radius than steel or alluminum.

gcasillo

For the price of some carbon bars, I believe you're better off with aluminum bars and good bar tape like Fizik BAR:GEL. As light as carbon, every bit as comfortable, and kind to your wallet. And I'm as big a fanboy of CF as anybody.

nos

Yeah, but you don't need to cold work it. It would be nice, but if it boils down to that being the issue, then I'll take something that was worked at a higher temp. As for flexing, I don't think that would be the case, my ti bar on the MTB does not flex noticably. It did help dampen out some vibrations and lasts a lot longer than my last few aluminum bars.

DannoXYZ 

"I think the reason why, is that the stress put on a pair of drop bars never gets to a point where Ti is necessary. Aluminum is more than adequate in strength, and also lighter, so aluminum is still the preferred choice for most bicycle components except for nuts and bolts etc, since they generally undergo more stress."

Well, speak for yourself, I've snapped two alloy bars and one alloy stem on my track bike. There's also a great photo of a Russian rider doing the same thing with a STEEL handlebar at the World Championships in 1989 or 1990.

The stiffness-to-weight ratio of steel, aluminium and titanium is roughly the same, so when you've made optimized structures out of each material, 26.0mm for alloy, 24.0mm for steel or 25mm for titanium, they will all have roughly the same weight and same stiffness. What's bad about alloy is that it doesn't have a fatigue limit like steel. There's a load on steel where if you stay below this level, it never fails. Alloy has no fatigue limit and all loads will cause cumulative stress. Titanium is on the other extreme with much higher fatigue limits than steel and will probably last 4-10x longer under the same loads for the same weight of parts.

Problem is you cannot cold-work the stronger 6-4 titanium, it will work-harden and end up cracking the tool you're using to bend it. The weaker 3-2.5 titanium can be formed using same tooling as alloy.

So yes, a titanium bar would be nice, especially in a larger 27.0mm diameter for extra stiffness. I could never find such a thing, so I made my own one-piece welded steel track-bar + stem combo. It's about 0.5 lbs heavier than an alloy version, but is much stronger and stiffer.

nos

sucks, in trying to find the bar. Just weird that they don't make something this obvious for road bikes. Finding a new Ti stem is also a pain, that's why I went the ebay route.

ZappCatt

Not pretty, but a Chinese factory makes one... https://www.xacd.com.cn/product.asp?r...ootcl=1&cls=6#

Kinda digging the Aerobar setup...and the Ti Crankset, Ti stem, Ti Seatpost, Ti seatpost clamp, Ti chainring bolts, and of course a frame.....

Maybe I can plan a trip to Xi'an and visit the factory...

nos

Good find, I sent an email asking about their stuff.

ed073

It was Aleksander Kiritchenko in the 1000m TT at the 1989 Lyon World Championships.

He was offered another ride as this was a legitimate equipment failure, but he was spent. World champ was East Germany's Jens Glucklich. Kiritchenko came back to win the rainbow jersey in 1990.

531Aussie

you're a freak. How could you KNOW that?
I can't believe you lost interest in racing

ed073

Call me Rainman.

Hey....I still love racing, I just leave it up to other guys now.

Mentor58

Looks like they get around the problem of bending Ti by welding pieces together to make the bends. I'm holding out for Ti Presta stem nuts and caps

Steve

nos

There is not a problem bending Ti, it can be radiused 180 deg if you want. If I can only find that freaking link to the ti manufacturer that was reading up about the material a couple weeks back..

nos

Here are some links ti sites and picts of Ti being bent in tigh curves.

https://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Yamah...spagenameZWDVW

https://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ZX12R...spagenameZWD1V