Seven Axiom S

Over on vSalon, Tom Kellogg said:

' Titanium does NOT dampen. That is why they use the stuff for valve springs in high performance engines ... it is super springy. The other, and bigger issue is that titanium has a modulus that is about 64% of steel's. To make a titanium tube (read, steerer) as stiff as a steel tube, you have to either increase the thickness by over 50% or increase the diameter by close to 30%. For practical purposes, diameter can't be increased that much since it won't fit inside of a headset. The diameter solution works fine for frames since there isn't a practical diameter issue there, but for forks, it is a real problem. I have ridden titanium forks, sorry, they don't work well enough to make sense. There are a whole bunch of steel and composite options out there, just go with one of them. '

So, generally, when you see a titanium fork, they're big and beefy with big fork blades, which don't like to be raked like a steel fork blade can be, because the blades don't taper toward the fork end. It just doesn't make sense to use it as a material on a road bike. The fact that Moots, Seven, Eriksen etc etc don't and haven't ever made Ti forks says it all IMO.

Too springy. I've got some titanium MTB forks, and despite being a double crown design the amount of deflection is alarming. On a technical descent the front wheel is very rarely pointing in the same direction as the handlebars. Very comfortable, but not exactly precise on the handling front.

Edit: too late, what JB said.