An Amusement & Diversion for The Genteel Cyclist. Daily.

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Titanium-Carbon frames: An anecdotal condemnation

Is titanium dead? Over the weekend, Byron rode a new Davidson prototype called the Hotspur. The main point of differentiation is lighter oversized ti tubes, but the bike has a carbon rear triangle.


I've never liked hybrid bikes that try to marry disparate materials together. Ask any plumber if he ever puts brass fittings over steel pipes, for example, or mixes and matches the PVC drainage conduit with the copper deliveries. Now I realize that my cranks and chainrings are aluminum, that my spoke nipples are brass, that my chain is stainless, and that my frame is high-tensile steel.

But I think it's silly to puzzle together materials in the frame itself, and it falls under the rubric of "not leaving well enough alone" or "reinventing the wheel." Also, consider the climber: The more knots you tie in a rope, the more failure points you introduce.



I'm no rocket surgeon, but if you're a reasonable person who isn't pathologically obsessed with the weight (and cost) of your bike, then titanium + carbon can never live up to the pure pleasure, dependability, and value of uninterrupted steel. The rest is an exercise in vanity, self-delusion, and eventual failure. In my infalliable opinion, of course.

3 comments:

Dobie said...

2 items:

1. your chain isn't stainless, it's nickel plated.

2. Cost aside, and forgetting the steel is real moniker, titanium, I believe, is the best material for bicycle frames. it's light, needs no finish (paint or otherwise), is repairable, nearly indestructable in a durability sense, and has great ride characteristics

Anonymous said...

I agree w/ the previous poster, and always take my titanium straight up, no paint and no carbon

No failure

No problem

and gives me that edge at the coffee shop too

Unknown said...

Your point about not mixing your materials is certainly true in plumbing but titanium and carbon fiber go together like "peas and carrots". In fact the new composite aircraft coming out from Boeing and Airbus take advantage of it and it makes sense in bikes as well. Just don't mix titanium and Aluminum. It will corrode.