Quantcast

Tit-anium - Better Than Carbon

October 24th, 2007 by Arleigh

Titanium is a word that makes my skin tingle. I don’t lust over carbon or ever have. Sure I have carbon bars, or a carbon road bike but it doesn’t get me too excited.

Titanium I lust crave. I’ve had a Boone titanium cog and spacer kit on my bike for almost two years. Together the weight is super low compared to other cog and spacer kits out there. The cog has tons of life left and can be rotated for longer wear. Check out their website.

If you are like me and want more Ti for your bike. Moots makes a seat post, spacers and stem. Seven Cycles has a handlebar that makes me quiver.

Now to give you my reasoning of why Tit-anium is better than carbon.

1. Durability - You don’t have to worry about chipping your clear coat, laying it down on the trail won’t cause you to lose sleep.

2. Repairable - Every seen a crack in a carbon frame? It is normally warrantied if it is manufactured by a big company like Trek, Specialized, or Giant. Then it’s destroyed. Why? Because they can’t fix it!!! Now with titanium they could. I’ve seen head tubes, bottom brackets and drop outs cut off to have new ones welded on.

3. Many applications - Titanium can be found in spokes, cassettes, chains, chain rings and heavy wear items. Until recently carbon spokes were almost non existent.

4. Finish - If you scratch up a Ti frame just buff it out. It can be shined up or dulled down.

5. It’s sexy. Points finished.

9 Responses to “Tit-anium - Better Than Carbon”

RSS & Trackback
  1. 1 Chris  on Oct 24th, 2007 at 6:42 pm

    Hi there,

    You forgot some other great qualities about Ti!

    1- Comfort! A1 Add a ti stem and a ti seatpost and you have one super great combo with your frame :)

    2- Thanks to his elasticity, one can fold it, torture it and give again his form to him without it not losing its properties! Can’t say much about crackbon!

    3- Can work with your tubing to made it feel like Steel or you can work with your tubing to made feel like aloy we can even do both at the same time! Priceless

    4- got to agree 110% on this one, So sexy, classy, élégant!

    Keep it up! Ti is the only way!

  2. 2 Arleigh  on Oct 24th, 2007 at 7:07 pm

    Chris,

    Thank you for adding to my list. Comfort is well up there, especially with seat posts and handle bars. Who makes your ti parts?

  3. 3 Chris  on Oct 24th, 2007 at 7:46 pm

    Special custom projects are made in house in Quebec,

    Standard frame production line is made in China,

    And all component are made in Taiwan.

  4. 4 Arleigh  on Oct 25th, 2007 at 6:06 am

    What do “special custom projects” include?

  5. 5 Chris  on Oct 25th, 2007 at 6:38 am

    It include the choice of tubing, choice of finish, special geometrie (not like an usual frame geometrie, special form).

    And of course, things like this : http://sdvbikes.com/collections/frontpage/products/sdv-ti-beach-cruiser

  6. 6 Quinn  on Oct 25th, 2007 at 9:32 am

    I like the ride of carbon a lot more, carbon is much more common/availible, therefore can be cheeper, say your bike does become a tree ornament andyou break your bars, very bike shop in my area has carbon bars in stock, where as they would have to hunt down Ti bars, post, stem.

    Scratches- don’t be so vain! for gods sack its a mountain bike.

    Dents- frame patches.

  7. 7 Vic  on Nov 1st, 2007 at 12:32 pm

    As a rider on the larger end of the spectrum, I find that the off the shelf ti frames available have the feel of a leaf spring under my 230lb load. I know I could get a custom bike with proper tubing that would not do this, but I don’t wanna pay for it. So, for me, carbon on the road and (gasp) aluminum on the trail offer the best cost to performance ratio. I have no arguments against the positive attributes of ti, it is all the things I am not: Pretty, durable and repairable.

  8. 8 Arleigh  on Nov 1st, 2007 at 12:48 pm

    Quinn -
    Scratches on a carbon frame can lead to failure, and not just simple bend in the frame. Sure carbon is more available from huge companies but there are so many different levels of carbon, how you set up the epoxy, what type of mold etc etc, the ride characteristics change greatly from any one carbon model to another.

    If you dent a carbon frame from any large manufactor you have voided your warranty and most likely are going to see failure before you have a chance to get a patch. What are costs on patches & how do they work? (For my own knowledge.)

    Thanks for the input!! I ride a carbon road bike which I love, but would never be caught owning a carbon mountain bike unless I was a fully sponsored rider.

  9. 9 Rick  on Jan 20th, 2008 at 8:02 am

    Kent Erikson Cycles makes a beautiful and elegant seat post. Anyone know where to find a Ti straight bar with a 31.8 clamp size?

Leave a Reply