Anyone racing on Ti?

colm_gti
colm_gti Posts: 173
edited October 2013 in Road buying advice
Just moved to London, only brought my Dolan Preffisio training bike with me and left my Scott Cr1 SL racing bike at home in Ireland. Thinking about picking up a new good bike over here and leaving my other good bike at home for when I visit my parents, and I'm absolutely loving the look of Ti bikes.

Is anybody racing on Ti bikes, and how do they compare to carbon bikes like say a scott cr1 etc?

Was thinking of something from the enigma or van nicholas range, or even the planet-x pro ti, with an enve fork.

Comments

  • dodgy
    dodgy Posts: 2,890
    I have a Lynskey Sportive (supplied via PlanetX several years ago), it's lovely, but - it is measurably slower than my carbon bike. I'm convinced of it. It just doesn't have the urgency of a good carbon frame imo.

    People do race on Ti, though.
  • napoleond
    napoleond Posts: 5,992
    I tried racing on my litespeed Siena. It felt like the QE2 handling wise on a tight circuit. But this was a geometry issue, not a frame material issue.
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  • Monty Dog
    Monty Dog Posts: 20,614
    It depends on lot on the geometry/construction of the frame plus the weight/style of rider. At 60kg, I find some carbon frames skip and jump over broken road surfaces making it tricky to get the power down whereas with a titanium frame, I can keep things more under control.
    Make mine an Italian, with Campagnolo on the side..
  • tomisitt
    tomisitt Posts: 257
    SRPC Cycling Team have been racing this season in Men's Elite on Ti bikes. Not sure how successful they've been. Even with full race geometry, I suspect there is too much spring in a Ti frame to make it ideal for racing.
  • giant_man
    giant_man Posts: 6,878
    I wouldn't want to do anything on a ti frame, let alone race on one. Perish the thought.
  • schweiz
    schweiz Posts: 1,644
    I race a VN Euros in Crits and my mate races a Lightspeed but can't say what model it is. The Euros is not the sharpest handling bike but it does seem to bounce rather than break in a crash.
    VN BMC Cube SS
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  • jordan_217
    jordan_217 Posts: 2,580
    Yes, on my Enigma Echo. The curved rear stays make for a 'choppy' backend whilst sprinting but other than that it's fine.
    “Training is like fighting with a gorilla. You don’t stop when you’re tired. You stop when the gorilla is tired.”
  • sloppyschleckonds
    sloppyschleckonds Posts: 8,019
    schweiz wrote:
    but it does seem to bounce rather than break in a crash.

    :lol::lol::lol:
    I'm sorry you don't believe in miracles
  • imposter2.0
    imposter2.0 Posts: 12,028
    tomisitt wrote:
    SRPC Cycling Team have been racing this season in Men's Elite on Ti bikes. Not sure how successful they've been. Even with full race geometry, I suspect there is too much spring in a Ti frame to make it ideal for racing.

    There's nothing unusual about racing a Ti frame - it was common practice 10-15 years ago, before carbon took hold. I did a few races on Ti about three years ago. As ever, the rider is far more important in the equation than the frame material - if SRPC haven't been successful, it won't be because of the bikes...
  • colm_gti
    colm_gti Posts: 173
    Imposter wrote:
    tomisitt wrote:
    SRPC Cycling Team have been racing this season in Men's Elite on Ti bikes. Not sure how successful they've been. Even with full race geometry, I suspect there is too much spring in a Ti frame to make it ideal for racing.

    There's nothing unusual about racing a Ti frame - it was common practice 10-15 years ago, before carbon took hold. I did a few races on Ti about three years ago. As ever, the rider is far more important in the equation than the frame material - if SRPC haven't been successful, it won't be because of the bikes...
    Ah yeah, I'm aware of the rider being most important component on a bike, but lets say you had the option of a (just for arguements sake) dolan preffisio, scott cr1sl and enigma excel/equinox in your stable....what would you go racing on?
  • schweiz
    schweiz Posts: 1,644
    Which ever one I could afford to crash! At the end of the day, I could race my BMC, but if I crashed it, set of Dura Ace STIs are about half the cost of the complete Ultegra groupset on the VN and as I said above, the Ti frame has simply bounced in each of the 3 crashes it's been involved in (incidentally, all training accidents, not racing). For an amateur racer with a normal income, no realistic ambitions about turning pro, then cost has to be a major factor. I once saw a guy in near tears after trashing a set of brand new Zipps on a kerb in a crit.
    VN BMC Cube SS
    http://app.strava.com/athletes/30000
  • velojay
    velojay Posts: 44
    I did a race on my Van Nicholas Chinook once when my shifter broke on my race bike (cervelo s2) and I didn't have time to fix it. The ti bike was not so direct with power transfer and a little heavier as it's my winter bike normally so not so light group set etc but it handled pretty well with race wheels on.

    Definitely a noticeable difference though between the two frames since the Cervelo is pretty focused as a race frame and therefore very stiff through the bb and chain stays.
  • velojay
    velojay Posts: 44
    I'd definitely choose the Scott out of the three frames you have mentioned to race on.
  • keef66
    keef66 Posts: 13,123
    VeloJay wrote:
    I'd definitely choose the Scott out of the three frames you have mentioned to race on.

    Me too. Mainly because I have one in the garage. I'd still come last though :D

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