great deal on titanium frames

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raylo32

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Just got this in my inbox... Lynskey is having a 50% off sale on ti frames. Link here is to their gravel offerings that make great all-around gravel, road, touring or e-bikes. I have one of the GR300 that I built up a few years ago and I love it. Pretty much a lifetime piece... very strong, will never corrode. I may convert to an e-bike with a mid motor one of these days. Road and MTB frames are on similar sale, I believe.

I am not affiliated with Lynskey in any way... I just own and ride a 2003 LiteSpeed Tuscany and a 2020 GR300.

Titanium Gravel Bikes - Lynskey Performance Designs

lynskeyperformance.com lynskeyperformance.com
 
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I was dreaming about a titanium frame. I was even trying to talk the old lady into one of those chinese frames you design yourself.Thank you for this link.
 
Are they really better than steel or Aluminum? How do they handle flex? can they be repaired better than aluminum without heat treatment.

Back in the day I owned a titanium 2 wheel hand cart along with about 15 steel and aluminum ones. The titanium one seemed to hold up better than the Al ones did but none of the guys liked it so it didn't get much use.
 
Light as aluminum, as strong as steel, never rust. No flex issues, these are designed properly considering the material. Just great frames. As for repair? That would be more difficult than steel as you would need a certified titanium welder to do it. But I have over 100,000 hammerhead miles on that Tuscany, never needed any repair and is still essentially like new. It started out with Dura Ace 9 speed components, went to 10, and lastly 11 which is where it will stay. These old days I ride my e-bikes more.


nicobie said:
Are they really better than steel or Aluminum? How do they handle flex? can they be repaired better than aluminum without heat treatment.

Back in the day I owned a titanium 2 wheel hand cart along with about 15 steel and aluminum ones. The titanium one seemed to hold up better than the Al ones did but none of the guys liked it so it didn't get much use.
Click to expand...
 
amberwolf said:
Did they dislike it for it's titanium qualities, or was it differently designed, sized, or shaped than the others?
Click to expand...
It was a bad design. Had air tires. The ones with solid ones were much quicker and more responsive. The mag was good for delivering in a corn field but we seldom needed to do that. The only time I can remember we did was when supplying stuff to the catering crew who was feeding all who worked on Of mice and men when it was being filmed around here.
 
Titanium alloys are about the same strength as the steels used in bicycles, but two-thirds the density. They only have three-fifths the stiffness of steel, though, so the stiffness-to-density ratio is a little less than that of steel or aluminum.

Titanium doesn't need paint, which gives it another weight reducing advantage. And like steel (but unlike aluminum), it has a threshold value below which stresses don't contribute to metal fatigue. So it has the potential to be made into a "forever" frame that won't crack, no matter how long it's been ridden.

The disadvantages of titanium include extreme cost of material, seizing and galling when used for threaded components (like threaded bottom bracket shells, eyelets, bottle bosses), difficult machining, and difficult welding.

Titanium alloy becomes oxygen contaminated and embrittled if it's welded without shielding gas completely covering the entire weld zone on both sides of the metal. So the frame must be purged free of air and filled with inert gas before welding. Machining must be done slowly and with a heavy chip, because Ti phase-changes to an abrasive and brittle phase when it's cut shallowly or with a high edge speed.
 
If I can add one additional comment ... Ti on it's own doesn't make a great bike. A "good" Ti bike still needs to be well designed.

As a former road biker I was (and generally still am to some degree) very sensitive to the feel of a road/urban bike. I had a Litespeed Catalyst (Ti road bike) for a few years that was nice, light but did not have a great feel, and a custom built steel (Columbus SL/SP) bike became my preferred ride. Later I bought a Litespeed Appalachian for a different type of riding (Ti touring/cross bike) and still own this wonderful bike.

The Catalyst was a relatively inexpensive ride (made to introduce Ti to more budget oriented road bikers). It was similar in price to then mid - higher end Alu frames (Canondale el al) and rode pretty similarly with my 200lbs on it. The custom steel frame I ended up with was just nicer on fast 4-5 hour rides. Road bikes are very sensitive to build quality and frame material to ensure a compliant ride, this is in addition to the obvious need for appropriate geometry. Rolling on low volume 120psi wheels also means that frame compliance after many hours in the saddle is a really big deal.

As I've aged my riding style and preferences have changed (no longer regularly riding fast centuries with friends). I still ride a steel frame bike regularly (Surly Cross Check with a small Grin based Shengyi hub motor), but also with larger lower pressure tires. The Appalachian doesn't get used as often these days but I keep looking at it for another DIY assisted upgrade.

I feel that with heavier bikes (more ebikes) and a general acceptance of larger lower pressure tires (think gravel and urban bikes) makes the selection or preference of frame materials less of an issue ... and thus the Ti frame market is getting smaller and smaller. It's a lot harder to sell the concept of a forever frame, especially one that's quite a bit more expensive.

The Lynskys look like a great deal, and if I was in the market for a higher end long term frame for an touring/urban/adventure type of bike I'd be all over one.
 
Frankly, I kinda wish there were chonky, non-designed Ti bikes available for those who appreciate the materials benefits but don't need extreme lightness, sophistication, or fashion chasing. The closest we ever got to that was the moment in the 1990s when post-collapse Russia was throwing titanium at the wall to see what stuck.

So-called "CP" (commercially pure) Ti frames from Diamondback, Raleigh and others were the only somewhat cheap, simple and functional Ti bikes that I ever saw on the market. I'd be very much into titanium frames built with the same sense of non-preciousness that commodity aluminum frames have now (but without the pointless, counterproductive curved and hydroformed tubes).
 
You sound a lot like me in terms of history and current riding profile. I am an extreme sweater so my first real road bike, a steel Trek 400, eventually rusted away. But that was after I had retired it for one of those Trek 2300 carbon tube bikes. I kept the 400 at my parent's house and rode it when I visited and eventually it broke... not while I was riding because I had stopped using it due to the corrosion by that point. I also had trouble with the Trek 2300... sweat eventually infiltrating the glued joints and coming apart. I got a couple of free frame replacements along the way but Ti was the easy answer for me after that.

Mclewis1 said:
If I can add one additional comment ... Ti on it's own doesn't make a great bike. A "good" Ti bike still needs to be well designed.

As a former road biker I was (and generally still am to some degree) very sensitive to the feel of a road/urban bike. I had a Litespeed Catalyst (Ti road bike) for a few years that was nice, light but did not have a great feel, and a custom built steel (Columbus SL/SP) bike became my preferred ride. Later I bought a Litespeed Appalachian for a different type of riding (Ti touring/cross bike) and still own this wonderful bike.

The Catalyst was a relatively inexpensive ride (made to introduce Ti to more budget oriented road bikers). It was similar in price to then mid - higher end Alu frames (Canondale el al) and rode pretty similarly with my 200lbs on it. The custom steel frame I ended up with was just nicer on fast 4-5 hour rides. Road bikes are very sensitive to build quality and frame material to ensure a compliant ride, this is in addition to the obvious need for appropriate geometry. Rolling on low volume 120psi wheels also means that frame compliance after many hours in the saddle is a really big deal.

As I've aged my riding style and preferences have changed (no longer regularly riding fast centuries with friends). I still ride a steel frame bike regularly (Surly Cross Check with a small Grin based Shengyi hub motor), but also with larger lower pressure tires. The Appalachian doesn't get used as often these days but I keep looking at it for another DIY assisted upgrade.

I feel that with heavier bikes (more ebikes) and a general acceptance of larger lower pressure tires (think gravel and urban bikes) makes the selection or preference of frame materials less of an issue ... and thus the Ti frame market is getting smaller and smaller. It's a lot harder to sell the concept of a forever frame, especially one that's quite a bit more expensive.

The Lynskys look like a great deal, and if I was in the market for a higher end long term frame for an touring/urban/adventure type of bike I'd be all over one.
Click to expand...
 
raylo32 said:
You sound a lot like me in terms of history and current riding profile. I am an extreme sweater so my first real road bike, a steel Trek 400, eventually rusted away.
Click to expand...

Did you use it on a stationary trainer? That's usually how bikes get rusted to ruin.
 
Chalo said:
ridden.

The disadvantages of titanium include extreme cost of material, seizing and galling when used for threaded components (like threaded bottom bracket shells, eyelets, bottle bosses), difficult machining, and difficult welding.

Titanium alloy becomes oxygen contaminated and embrittled if it's welded without shielding gas completely covering the entire weld zone on both sides of the metal. So the frame must be purged free of air and filled with inert gas before welding. Machining must be done slowly and with a heavy chip, because Ti phase-changes to an abrasive and brittle phase when it's cut shallowly or with a high edge speed.
Click to expand...
I would hope the big boys have the purge chamber manufacturing on lock compared to alibaba?

Was reading about stainless steel which has its own manufacturing issues, but how does that compare. Will it be as good as Ti at the beach or in foggy seaside PNW weather .Or alu scandium benefits drawbacks. Alu seems cool too but I wonder about it supporting mid drive weight, and benefits drawbacks of carbon fork vs Ti. Thought about scoring a steel or ti MTB and doing a rigid Ti or steel fork swap but unsure o sizing

Litespeed, who is also doing a sale,seems to have the lightest Ti frame at 2.2 lb roadxl 2.7 disc, and .7 lb less than lynsky for MTB and gravel at like 3.5 or something. But I wish their lighter frames supported gravel or MTB clearance
 
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