Show us your Titanium! - Ti and Stainless bikes

Yeah, we'll paint whatever you pay us to, did a batch of cocktail shakers for service course in Wilmslow which are pretty fun. Email hello@revolvemcr.com

companies seem to make heavier/more relaxed/slower bikes for All-Weather/Winter/Audax bikes. I don't want to go any slower just because I've fit mudguards.

I also found this when looking for a proper winter road bike. There really isn't much on the market other than kinesis 4S or fairlight strael

Looks really good and with changing out the bits you mention should be 🔥(maybe also black spacers and Seatpost collar?)

https://www.instagram.com/p/CT66_16IINk

SPAM alert, can do subtle stuff too.

Ooh, some nice stuff there - I like the jazzy paint but that one is lovely. Bonus mudguard matching points too.

Kinesis Tripster ATR v1, built up just before the world went to shit. It's a dream.

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Opinion poll:
Would you rather

A) Butted Ti frame - Slightly lighter, less stiff, more expensive
B) Straight gauge Ti frame - Slightly heavier, stiffer, cheaper

For a 100% tarmac road bike. On the one hand, stiffness, especially in the bottom bracket and chainstays is what I want, but a hundred or two grams is difficult to ignore and does "double butted" as a marketing term if nothing else, add value/salability?

Always get butted if you're offered.

A...
I've ridden both butted and plain Ti frames and the butted was noticeably nicer to ride. I would go butted if I had the choice... one of the plain gauge frames was noticeably stiffer but lacked something, it was a bit dead... who is making the frame?

who is making the frame?

Unsure yet. Which is the basis for my asking. I wanted butted, Waltly are saying they're not doing butted. I am checking with some other manufacturers.

C) Carbon frame

Not an option

I had my seven built straight gauge because the 60g weight saving wasn’t worth an extra $500, to me.

I was told that I’d probably like the butted frame more, as the butting can be used to further tune my ride preferences, but I guess that won’t be the case with what you’re suggesting? The sheer number of straight gauge tube sets available was so, so vast that I knew the bike would already ride better than anything else I’d ever touched. And I was right. Zero regrets.

Also, there are enough legendary Ti builders who only build with straight gauge including none other than now retired Moots founder Kent Eriksen. So really I don’t think you can go wrong with either. It’s more about tube profiles than butting from a ride quality perspective.

Unless you're riding the two back to back, I know nobody will know the difference.
I'm choosing tube profiles for ride characteristics already but I wanted butting for the weight and because whether or not it actually adds any advantage to the frame, many people think this:

Always get butted if you're offered.

and therefore perceived value increases. I am looking into selling these, not just making one.

Nobody would know the difference with steel either in that case but ain't no one spending dollar on plain gauge steel bikes. Why would you spend decent money on a custom bike out of a supposedly premium material only for it to have shiny gas pipe tubes?

Yeah, for me, the perceived value wasn't there. But I appreciate I'm not your average consumer. Just look at Bearclaw to see how easily people can be sucked into marketing for Chinese welded frames.

For me, sub $3000 for a Ti frame from a world renowned shop was like 'woah, that's way more attainable than anticipated' (especially compared to stock manufacturer's like Moots who want $4k). Whereas $3500 for butted was like 'hmmmm the bargain feel of this frame has started to disappear'.

But if you can keep the cost of butting the frames low and the markup high then I guess it's a win-win.

I'd be slightly cautious of how many far east manufacturers actually do double butt tubing. Unless you cut your frame up it would be pretty hard to tell, the fact Waltly refused to was a confidence tick in my book, I.e they were prepared to tell me they couldn't do something than say yes to clinch a sale. Personally I'd go straight gauge.

Might be selling the Moots maybe... 56cm Compact Road with 11 speed Di2... let me know if you're interested

Ti is usually externally butted so you could tell because you could measure. But I understand your point and that's fine. It just might be the reason I don't go with them.
I'm going to thoroughly prototype and test the eventual frame before selling anything anyway

Because it only affects weight and weight is not everything. Here's an excerpt from Spectrum Cycles website:

At Spectrum, we select from both butted and straight-gage tubing when customizing your ideal frame. We use straight-gage tubing on our standard titanium frames while our Supers are built with double butted tubes except for the seat stays (we even double butt the head tube and chain stays.) Durability is not affected by butting, as the highly stressed areas are the thicker butted sections. The advantage of the Super is simply the lower weight. Depending on size, the weight savings is anywhere from 4oz. to over a pound.

But weight is not everything. We can make either type of tubing feel the same by choosing the appropriate diameters and gauges. Because all of our frames are custom made, there is no performance difference between the two custom models. They handle, fit and feel the same and have the same geometry but the Supers feel a little lighter.

A marketing pitch from someone who sells (sold) PG ti frames? 100-450g is a lot on an expensive frame.

Don't forget this a hobby where people convince themselves they can feel the difference between latex and butyl innert tubes and are willing to pay for that micro gain....

Sorry I asked now

Not for me thank you dude

It's not really a marketing pitch though, is it? He's literally saying: 'just to let you know, you're not gonna feel a difference between one of my cheaper and one of my more expensive frames'.

I think it's an interesting talking point.