Show us your Titanium! - Ti and Stainless bikes

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PhilDAS

Stainless is also prohibitively expensive. I'm only 65 kilos so my bikes perhaps receive a little less stresses than some other folk's

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JB in reply to @PhilDAS

And it doesn't ride differently to steel.

When I started speaking to Gaulzetti about my Seven last year he said (I italicised the important bit):

'Stainless is another $1000 due to material costs and increased labor time incurred. Again- it doesn’t make for a better bike. It just allows for an 1100 gram steel frame if that is desired. If I’m looking to build in the snap and rigidity and liveliness I like in a race bike- there is negligible weight savings as I generally end up speccing the same tubing profiles and diameters in both XCR and Columbus Spirit/Life/Niobium etc. If you truly want a frame that will have an infinite fatigue life and never corrode- I’d rather work with you on a titanium project. XCR isn’t truly stainless and is a bit on the brittle side compared to other materials. All stuff I account for with our heat treatment schedule, argon induced welding, and final finish work on stainless frames- but with Ti you can literally bury the frame under the ocean for a decade, dredge it up, and with some red scotch brite and elbow grease- the frame will be good as new! Not such an option with any modern steel- stainless or otherwise. '

Dave Kirk even advises people who live near the sea to not buy 953 frames because stainless reacts with salt air. Lol.

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vpCogworks in reply to @JB

Also, raw material prices increased drastically since last year, nickel's still going up and it won't drop for many months to come. That means stainless will only become more expensive for the foreseeable future.

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