Titanium bike debate

shortfall

Navrig2 wrote:

I've got a Lynskey. Love it except it's getting a bit dull riding a bike which is one shade of gray. Is it sacrilegious to spray a Ti frame?

Well I think this looks rather nice.

tmg

I have an Enigma Evoke with Ultegra, great bike, had it three years now and bought it direct from Enigma. If your close enough to their site then I'd suggest you go down and have a look at their bikes and talk to them about all the options available

londoncommuter

Shortfall wrote:

Navrig2 wrote:

I've got a Lynskey. Love it except it's getting a bit dull riding a bike which is one shade of gray. Is it sacrilegious to spray a Ti frame?

Well I think this looks rather nice.

Looks lovely but a lot of people spend hours trying to protect delicate paint on carbon fibre bikes, don't rob yourself of one of the great things about titanium!

Probably an obsession of mine but when I started looking at them I was really surprised how few had mudguard mounts and clearance. Seems a bit odd when these are year-round long term bikes. PlanetX were a bargain but that ruled them out for me.

First.Aspect

First Aspect wrote:

londoncommuter wrote:

First Aspect wrote:

I have never heard of any frame of any material failing at an internal cable routing point. More nonsense I'm afraid.

Mine did.

yeah going to need a bit more info. Did your cables run near welds? Some builders are self taught engineers. Or muppets. Were they effectively just drilled? Or through a reinforcing plate? Did it fail because of the internal routing port or merely in that region. Do ypu really know? I'm genuinely interested.

handful

I'm currently in the same boat, thinking hard about a Ti bike and researching the options. I have narrowed my choices down to an Enigma (as well), a Reilly and a Vaaru. Although the most popular ones are decent bikes I'm sure I just feel these suit my wants the best and I like buying that are bikes that are slightly unusual.i.e not lynskey, van nicholas etc. Have you considered these at all and if so was there any reason to exclude them that I may have missed? Cheers

londoncommuter

Sure you've both seen them but a couple more most people consider are the slightly more common Kinesis (good deals at Merlin and PBK from time to time):

https://www.merlincycles.com/kinesis-ra ... 92577.html

Or a bit more custom:

http://burls.co.uk/index.php

skyeflyguy

Definitely have a look at Burls.
After having an independent bike fit and doing a lot of research I contacted Justin Burls. Over the space of a few weeks with emails and design plans pinning back and forward I took the plunge and ordered my first Ti frame.
I wanted something that was stiff and responsive but with the "legendary" Ti ride quality.....I did think it was a big ask and was a bit apprehensive that I wouldn't like the end result.
Based closely to a Cannondale Supersix geometry and with the larger diameter tubes I'm pleased to say that the bike is just as\even better than I had hoped for.
Slight weight penalty but without being over obsessively weight weenie the bike comes in at under 8kg with pedals and 2 cages.
Time will tell if there are any issues with the welds but it looks pure quality and there is potential for problems with any bike frame I would guess?

slowmart

Camcycle1974 wrote:

joey54321 wrote:

Shortfall wrote:

joey54321 wrote:

I have heard countless other people having Ti frames crack. It's not surprising, it's an incredibly hard material.

Countless? Titanium bikes are relatively uncommon and yet you've heard of countless frames cracking? Do you know these people or is something you've read on the internet? I'd be wary of believing unsubstantiated and unquantifiable scare stories on the web. Anyone considering shelling out large amounts of money on ANY frame would do well to do some research and buy from a reputable company with a good guarantee.

I own a titanium bike and I think it's wonderful. I'm 6'5" and weigh around 17 stone and if anyone's going to give a frame a hard time it's me, but the complete bike with pedals and alloy wheels is a smidge over 8kg. With different finishing kit and wheels I could probably shave off at least 500 grammes but it doesn't interest me to do that. Obviously this is a sample of one. YMMV.

Ok, countless was a bit of an overstep, I think it's 5 local guys of the top of my head. A variety of brands, some well known.

In contrast, I have seen one carbon bike fail (though it was actually that alloy part the fatigued and snapped).

Weird, Iv'e never seen a bike "fail" like that. Enigma offer a lifetime guarantee on the frame so I'm not too concerned.

It's not a lifetime warranty

14.2.1 for titanium road bicycle frames, a warranty that on delivery and for a period of 10 years from delivery, the titanium frame shall be free from material defects, but the warranty period for any carbon content of such frames is limited to 5 years;

handful

londoncommuter wrote:

Sure you've both seen them but a couple more most people consider are the slightly more common Kinesis (good deals at Merlin and PBK from time to time):

https://www.merlincycles.com/kinesis-ra ... 92577.html

Or a bit more custom:

http://burls.co.uk/index.php[/quote

Yes, seen them thanks, and the Genesis Cdf TI. Another one I have considered is the Jack Laverack, looks very very nice.

k3vinjam3s

I have a burls custom on order. Cannot comment on the bike yet but the process so far with justin has been superb.

Ive gone for an audax style frame but changed geometry a bit to suit me. Cant wait for it to get here.