China. Buying a road bike. Titanium?

colorzeppelin

Hi, I live in China (Hefei) and am looking for a decent commuter road bike under the £500 = 5000RMB.

Decathlon Btwin Triban 500 £370. Don't like the wheels/hubs, tyres, brakes, pedals. Ok Carbon fork, some Sora parts.
http://www.decathlon.com.cn/en/cycling-cm8301408.html
Giant Defy 3 (2015) £450. Has the alu fork, more graphics.
http://detail.tmall.com/item.htm?id=40073123969
Specialized Allez Sport is £600
http://www.specialized.com/us/en/bikes/ ... llez-sport

Here is where we get to the good stuff.
Custom frame Reynolds tubes titanium. 9.2kg, 500ish with good groupset options. Love the design, thin straight tubes, bare metal with carbon fork.
http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=40034049023

Mekk Poggio 1.5. Carbon frame, 8.8kg, 500ish with good groupset options. With Mavic Aksium wheels & 105 set for 600. Read some bad things about internal routing Jagwire rubbing frame. Also n00b question but does water get through the frame because of the internal cable cutouts
http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=41348534878

I'm 6.1" and heavy at 110kg. 81cm inside leg.
Plan to use the bike for daily commute. 15km each way, fairly smooth roads, no climbs.

keezx

Titanium of coarse......

colorzeppelin

Hi Keezx! Greetings to Holland, from China.
Why "Titanium", any particular reason?

de_sisti

As you're in China, have you thought about these people? Xi'an Changda Titanium Products Ltd.
I've bought titanium frames/forks from them that are still being used.

keezx

colorzeppelin wrote:

Hi Keezx! Greetings to Holland, from China.
Why "Titanium", any particular reason?

2 years ago I ordered a titanium frame from XACD because I wanted a custom frame and could not find anything
< 1000€ in Europe.
Decided to go the China route, why should I buy Alu or steel if I could get titanium for less?
I use it for long tours in my region or tours in the mountains on holiday's but would also very suitable for commuters:
Light,sturdy, not sensitive to damage and geometry at wish.
Does not look "bling "for the majority , so less sensitive for theft.
Communication with the salesperson of XACD was interesting too......
The product was even better than I expected, and all together I'm very satisfied with it.
The name Taobao doesn't ring any bell at me, but they can build good titanium frames in China as I have expirienced.
The wheels may not be strong enough for you, but you can give it a try and change them when they give problems.

Monty Dog

I've bought 6 custom ti frames from China: 4 from Xi'an/XACD but last 2 I've bought from Waltly Titanium - cheaper, better engineered, better quality plus they accept Paypal.
I'd had enough of the cr@p from Porter too - anything over standard was $50 or $100 regardless of complexity. Recently ordered a 5" custom fatbike frame from Waltly - arrived in 5 weeks:

This is was last year's build:
http://www.spanner.org.uk/2013/12/fraserss-custom-titanium-29er-plus-from-waltly-titanium/

keezx

Well, Porter was apparently in a good mood then , I didn't pay anything extra over the standard 595 USD and even got the frame brushed without charge.....AND could pay by Paypal.
Next year I'm planning another one, maybe start a conversation with Waltley, although there have been discussions about their performance.

Monty Dog

Put a Waltly frame next to XACD and you can see a clear difference in quality of construction - XACD uses crude, water-cut plate drop outs and straight chainstays - Waltly uses forged drop-outs and brake mounts and tapered chainstays. I also don't get 6 emails a day from Porter's various accounts telling me to send payment.