Just curious about this since I’m not as familiar with titanium bikes as I’d like to be. My wife has a titanium road bike that rides like a dream but it’s standard round tubing. Is it possible to make genuine aero tubing from titanium as with aluminium or carbon? Any good examples?
Cerveloguy,
Yes. Have you looked at Litespeed. Their Blade has some very aero shaped tubes. I don't know enough about their Sabere to know if it has aero shaped tubes as well. Litespeed probably manipulates titanium tubing more that any other framebuilder. Though be advised that titanium is a very difficult metal to work with. The more you try to change its shape, the more you drive up the cost of the finished product. I'm sure you'll get more responses to your questions.
both guru and 'roo have their top of the line ti bikes mimicing the “aero” tubing on their top of the line alu bikes…
don’t know if it’s NACA aero or whatever, but they pass it off as such…
I’d suggest much of that magical ride quality come from the titanium tubes shapes.
Aero tubes do not have the vertical compliance that round ones do.
Don’t get hung up on ti as being comfy, it doesn’t have to be, it just can be. Shapes of tubes have a far greater impact on ride quality.
-SD
Well said Super Dave. I couldn’t agree more.
The Blade and Tiphoon are arguably aero shaped. My recollection is that the later is actually not drawn tubing but rather ti sheet metal that is seam welded after shape formation. Maybe Herbert can educate us but I guess is pretty tough to shape a large ti down tube. I ride a PicanTi and it has a moderately aero shaped downtube. Ride feels great to me. I must say the thing I like best about my new (well 2002 model) ti bike is how nice the finish holds up. No paint to chip or scratch. After watching the paint practically fall off my Kestrel road bike it is a nice change.
Mike
Great Minds think alike…
…so do sheep.
from my understanding you are quite right. I recently purchased a Litespeed Vortex and did lots of research/reading beforehand. The 6/4 titanium used in the blade and vortex only comes in sheets and is folded, welded and the seams are ground smooth to form the required shapes. Only the 3/2.5 titanium comes in tubes.
I also love the ride and the finish of the raw titanium.
CG - check out Tom’s post about his new Guru Aero’Ti that he’s tricked out for IMNZ…it’s flat-out SEXY. Personally, I prefer the ‘naked’ Ti look…
The QR TiPhoon and several of Litespeed’s road bikes (and the Blade) have some far-out tubes as well.