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I read that titanium seatposts have shock absorbing characteristics
We have pneumatic tyres for that, although if it's an old school steel frame it's not actually going to be very stiff compared with modern carbon or aluminium bikes.
FWIW, due to the hardness of both materials, I had a fair amount of difficulty getting my Ti seat post to stay put in my steel frame, but that was about a hundred years before Tacx carbon assembly paste, which might work in that application. Also, #tartmode alert, my bike with the Ti stem and Ti seat post also has Ti cranks - go big or go home :)
gbj_tester-
I'll keep the carbon assembly paste in mind but the frame has a double seatpost bolt which might help with that. Coming from non-os steel tubes, Max tubing is very stiff in my world. No can do on the TI crankset, that place is reserved for a mavic starfish, a part which I'm sure you have the utmost admiration for ;)
Sig_Arlecchino
Thanks for the elaborate answer, very interesting! There's a couple of reasons why I would like a Titanium finishing kit and I guess none of them will seem rational to you which is only fair since I wouldn't argue that it's a rational choice :) The main argument is that I like rare and unusual bits as a collector and design enthusiast. Second, I would like the bike to be fairly light, which is not justifiable in rational terms since it's a steel tarck bike and won't be used for hill climbs or anything like that. If weight was the primary objective I'd build a seta. Third, the frame is rather stiff (lugged columbus max with shorter ST than I usually ride) and I read that titanium seatposts have shock absorbing characteristics which in theory should make the bike a bit more comfortable. And with a TI seatpost I want a matching stem although I can see that for a stem you would want maximum stiffness especially for out of the saddle sprinting. In all honesty, most of this is just wankery and at the end of the day the vast majority of us buy bikes and bits for subjective reasons because we like them or because we are #buyers and not neccessarily because we need them for performance gains or for functionality. TL, DR: I want them because I want them :)