Show us your Titanium! - Ti and Stainless bikes

Just finished building my Burls comfy road bike, still needs some tweaking, lower the bars and chop the steerer etc. (also need to deal with the weeds!) Couple of flavours with road wheels and 'gravel' wheels.

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really nice

Pure class.

Very cool & smooth!

I gave my Hallett a pre-season polish the other week. Always nice when people ask whether your 5 year old bike that spends most of it's time getting bashed about in a communal container is new.

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.... 56 .... ! ! Blimey ....

Enables me to run a 16t at track league for maximum smoothness. I need all the help I can get racing against the fast kids on carbon aero bikes!

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My Equilibrium 931 Disc. Found it last year on Pinkbike for 1k and brought to Poland. Previous owner stripped the paint from the frame (only model decals etc left), so wonderful and classy look. Just switched the wheels to my own that I previously had on Pickenflick. This spring is unusually cold and rainy so still in the bad weather mode, soon going to take the mudguards off and mount the gumwall Veloflexes I found cheap at Merlin when buying it.
All in all, this is going to be my bike for a lifetime, with RWS thrubolt skewers I don't miss lack of TA and the only upgrade I plan at some point is a Di2 groupset (frame is fully compatible for internal Di2 routing).

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Terrible image but here is my Gazelle Titan Road with a fresh set of tyres and it’s summer Shamals fitted ready for riding 😎

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If people were considering buying a new titanium road frame, is the affordable choice Walty, Kinesis or Burls and then the more expensive option being Van Nicholas or Enigma? Or holding out for a decent second hand US frame like Moots, Seven etc?

In my opinion Waltly or hold out for top end (Moots, Seven, Sturdy, Mosaic etc). Kinesis, Van Nicholas, Dolan, Planet X, Ribble are just marked up Chinese frames. The top end Enigma ones (the ones built in the UK) are good but most of their range is far east produced.

Looks great - I've got the same model & while I like the subtle decals on the frame I don't think the black front end does it much justice - are those the 40mm kinesis guards? Was thinking about those but ended up with 35c Matt bluemels

If people were considering buying a new titanium road frame, is the affordable choice Walty, Kinesis or Burls and then the more expensive option being Van Nicholas or Enigma? Or holding out for a decent second hand US frame like Moots, Seven etc?

I know a chap with a Burls and he has nothing but good things to say about it. I chatted to Justin (Burls) about a frameset and while I didn't go ahead, he was helpful and knowledgeable.

I wouldn't necessarily discount a far east frame; the better factories have been making titanium bikes for 25 years now and know exactly what they're doing.

Also consider Paradigm. I have 1 coming in a few weeks, so I'll report back further after that, but Charlie who runs it has given absolutely superb customer service (much better than some more established brands/framebuilders I could mention).

The obvious alternative to budget Ti is a top end steel frame. A Rourke 853 with Futura forks is going to be c. £1600 and I honestly don't think you can go wrong with that.

Hot tomalies that's red hot! Makes my rainy saturday great again. What's that fizik thingy above the seatpost clamp and what cages are those?

In my experience I’ve only had one new Ti frame which is an enigma esprit (still use it, purchased 12/13 years ago?!) Far East manufactured and still looking & riding well.

Also had a Sabbath Silk Road (sold) and the gazelle which were purchased used for about 1/4 of their new price. If looked after they stay looking almost new.

To keep them looking nice a dull polished finish is easier for upkeep rather than bead blasted, but it depends on how you use them/look after them.

The Enigma is a lovely soft ride, the gazelle frame is a little smaller and feels quite a bit stiffer, but both have their own personality.

Torus are another Ti frame company located near to me (Shropshire U.K.) and have tie ins with Burls, but their bikes are always built to a high standard with good reviews.

Good luck in your search 👍

Bottle cages are stainless Blackburn, and the fizik rubber seal is to keep the water/shit going into the seat tube when using in the crap weather. It’s not the best looking addition but seem to work well

I think the point isn't that marked up Chinese (or other) frames are bad, just it's extra expense for the UK warranty and brand compared to the direct to consumer Chinese offerings

Yes, exactly these. First was going to buy SKS too, as in Poland they are the only good guards brand available, but found it at Merlin and got interested, as I currently run 28 mm but would like to try 30 or 32 mm one day, with guards too.
On topic of frame look, I also definitely prefer the current bare look with those minimalist decals to the original half-black painted one.

What Saffron said. The value for money prospect of buying American Ti from the UK is pretty low. A Waltly costs like a third of a Seven in the UK? Yes, it's a very different experience, but I'm not sure a Seven is three times as good. And Seven, in my opinion, are probably the best value US built Ti frames there are. Moots and Mosaic are exceedingly expensive even in the U.S., let alone the UK.

With that said, purchasing my Seven was a fantastic experience and delivery was staggeringly quick. Five weeks from fit to having the frame in my hands. I'd absolutely purchase another Seven. I have a life time warranty, had a fit from a well regarded bike designer and my bike was built up free of charge. Not bad to get all that considering I only bought a frameset. Oh - and it's the best road bike I've ever ridden.

I’ve had three ti frames so far, all 2nd hand - https://www.lfgss.com/conversations/244590/
a Lynskey, an Enigma and a Moots currently... the Lynskey was a custom build butted frame and was fantastic, comfortable and capable, gutted I sold it... the Enigma was one of their Far East built plain gauge ones and also painted - it was nice but stiffer than the Lynskey and a bit of a dull ride, with limited tyre clearance, sold it and no regrets... now I have a Moots, also plain gauge I think, Vamoots CR, it’s stunning, very nice but struggling a little to dial in the fit as the front is much higher than other bikes I’m used to... might have to sell it... what size are you looking for?
If I was to consider a new ti frame from a shop I’d be favouring another Lynskey I think, but given the cost of new vs second hand I think I’d wait for something high end to pop up used and see how I get on with it... ideally butted tubing...
what kind of thing are you looking for? Discs? Gravel or road? QS or thru axle? Tyre clearance? One thing I’d want to look for is something with a replaceable rear mech hanger - just in case etc...
also I’ve seen a few stainless Genesis about for reasonable money I’d like to try at some point...

Thanks for all the feedback everyone, I really appreciate hearing all of your thoughts and experiences.

I’m after a 58c-c, ideally horizontal TT. It’s a road frame I’m after, I never run anything wider than 28c and I’ve yet to get in to gravel. I currently run 11 speed Campagnolo groupsets on my Look 565 and Serotta Colorado with LB carbon wheels with rim brakes and QR skewers. No experience of thru-axles or discs... feels like a bit of a Pandora’s box all of that, financially and otherwise!

I recall seeing a bargain Merlin in your size on here? Maybe it was eBay... horizontal TT means OG Vamoots, enigma esprit, older sabbath silk roads, Merlin extralite... older Sevens... 👍🏻👍🏻

I wouldn't exclude Kinesis. I've a Condor Moda, Dedacciai Strada K-19 and a Kinesis Racelight GF (all three are Ti) and to be fair, considering both the Condor and Dedacciai are made in Italy by Dedacciai, the build quality on the Kinesis is equally comparable to the Italian frames.

Excuse the poor picture.

Go Pro wheels back from truing, Pirelli P zero's fit, ready for Lands End next week. Bike rides really beautifully, am tempted by one of those aero titanium seatposts that you see on ebay. As it stands, the bike weighs 8.1kg without lights/computer. It's snappy but not rapid up the hills.

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