Thinking about switching from carbon fiber to titanium
Hello.
I've been riding a carbon fiber road bike for over ten years, but I've been considering buying a titanium bike for several reasons. Ride quality (Smooth ride) Longevity. (The bike will last a long, long time.) Customization. Built for my body and how I ride. And endurance. The event rides that I do are 100+ miles. I'm also older. (Over 60) One other caveat - I ride with a group that does a lot of climbing. (They train for a 150-mile ride with 10,000 feet of climbing.)
My main concern with titanium is the weight vs carbon, particularly on the climbs. So, with all that, has anyone switched from carbon fiber to titanium, and if so, what are your thoughts?
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How much will you, your clothing, your water bottle and your carbon bike weigh?
How much will you, your clothing, your water bottle and your titanium bike weigh?
There will probably be about 300g out of a total of about 90,000g difference. If that bothers you, you should also be worried about aeroshaped tubing and the drag caused by a beard. If you are doing insurance riding, I presume you could care less.
Titanium can look nice and ride well. But not necessarily. If you do go custom, choose well, talk about what you want with the builder and it will be great.
Fwiw I have a high end Ti frame and it's not the stiffest bike I have, hence "springy". Personally I love it, and it takes the edge off out of saddle climbing.
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Waste of money, unless the geometry/size of your bike is wrong. Carbon fibre is so “harsh”, that even titanium bikes use carbon forks to improve the ride quality, go figure…
metal frames are limited by having a construction made with joined tubes, with carbon you can do any shape you want, therefore the frames are far superior.
There is really no reason to use titanium, unless you really like the aesthetics of the dark grey metal finish and the narrow round tubes.
Anecdotally, they don’t even last as long as they claim, welds tend to fail and they are difficult to repair.
Also, custom size is unnecessary, as the same exact geometry can be obtained from an off the peg frame by tweaking the seat height, the stem length and the steerer length… it really does not make a difference
left the forum March 20231 -
Mostly nonsense about longevity and tube diameter and wotnot. But true that carbon frames can be as flexy or stiff as you want, just like anything else. But the challenge with carbon is finding something that's not overly stiff. The concept of stiff BB and compliance for riding comfort just doesn't work for my money. You end up with a dulled ride quality. I personally also prefer the slight side to side flex from a flexier BB area. Just helps climbingto be more fluid. Might be immeasurably slower, but I'm 50 and the op is 60 and is doing endurance riding. Who cares?
Btw, forks aren't titanium because it's difficult to make them out of that material. But they do exist. So to titanium cranks.
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I did this journey. It is hard to compare titanium with carbon unless the two bikes have the same equipment and geometry. I think the legendary comfort is over egged, you can lay up carbon frames how you like.
The titanium bike is about 500 grammes heavier, it is slightly slower on climbs.
The principal difference for me is that it is lower maintenance and I can chuck the bike in the back of the car with less worry. I don't treat my bikes well.
BASI Nordic Ski Instructor
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I fancied a titanium frame but was a bit disappointed to find they are weightier and more expensive than carbon or alloy. I have never really noticed the difference in feel of alloy and carbon frames - couldn't really see enough benefit for the money for a well looked after road bike.
Might have considered it for a commuter bike though.
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They aren't heavier than "alloy" (by which I assume you mean aluminium), and both are lighter than steel. But you are talking about a few hundred grams, or about half of the contents of your water bottle. And if you tell the difference in ride quality between different bikes, I can't help you.
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I moved from carbon to Ti and don't regret it. Don't really notice the difference in feel, the weight "penalty" of Ti is minimal (have a dump before you get on the bike and it's sorted).
Custom is a waste of money, use the cockpit components to get the size right.
It's just another material with (slightly) different pros and cons.
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Agree. But what I would say is that a builder who offers custom is likely to be also making better frames per se.
Btw, custom isn't just about geometry. For mine I had some choice on tubing diameters, based on what sort of riding I do. It's a diminishing returns thing, but you have to expect to get incrementally less value for each additional £ you spend.
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But the extra 500 grams will make you slightly faster downhill.
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Probably more than offset by being less aero though.
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Unless he's racing aero isn't important, as witnessed by the Tour de France from 1958 till 2021, when the average speeds have only gone up 3.5 mph, and that's after all the fancy lightweight and aero CF bikes, all the training, all the aero clothing, blah blah blah, and none it is working! Guess what did work though? Since 1958 the miles raced were slowly reduced by 500 miles over the years till around 2000, so it was the reduction of miles that made the average speed go up, not all the fancy crap that marketing wants us to believe.
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Buy a bike that wants you to ride more.
everything doesn’t matter.
if it does, take a look at yourself and sort your shit out. Because it really doesn’t.
“Give a man a fish and feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and feed him for a lifetime. Teach a man to cycle and he will realize fishing is stupid and boring”
Desmond Tutu1 -
I retired my carbon frames albeit one remains in use on my indoor trainer, when I treated myself to a titanium bike to mark my 50th and was able to go top end on the spec.
I subsequently bought another mid range spec bike from the same builder to replace a carbon winter bike because I enjoyed the first bike so much.
The build quality is amazing and riding the bikes a pleasure. Comfort is good. Have bike packed using one frame and ridden LBL on the other. The other thing I’ve noticed is how quiet these bikes are to my carbon bikes. Granted there will be a difference in component quality and wheels but there is a distinct lack of ticks and squeaks when climbing with the power down.
Of course it’ll come down to personal choice in the end. I’ve ridden steel, aluminium/carbon mix and full carbon and I’m impressed with titanium and would recommend it if you’re still considering a purchase OP
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