Ti itch... well scratched!

Arran

Senior Retro Guru
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I've wanted a Ti bike ever since I befriended a couple of Yanks from Cali who were cycle touring aroud NZ back in ~ '93. I remember the Guys & their bikes like it was yesterday! Jim rode a gorgeous '89 Merlin Mtn resplendant in Suntour XC-Pro with a Ritchey unicrown fork. Joe rode a brand spanking Litespeed, draped in the first M900 groupset i'd seen & a Manitou II! Being a wide-eyed 17 year old I was in awe of the Guys' bikes.

Nearly 20 years later, I still hadn't come into posession of a Ti bike in spite of the fact that i've now owned over 100 bikes! This situation had to be remedied... Enter my 'experiment' with purchasing from a Chinese bicycle manufacturer. After some negotiation, 'too & fro' & a bit of product design, i've taken posession of not one but two new Ti frames & an impessive list of Ti add-ons!

1) Ti MTB hardtail frame:

I decided to go for a classic Ti frame. Compact geometry, standard headtube & B/B. This will be an M970/975 build with thumbies. Ti bars, pillar, skewers etc:

mtb1.jpg


mtb2.jpg


mtb7.jpg


mtb3.jpg


2) Ti Road frame:

Following the same principle as the MTB frame, i've opted for standard headtube & B/B. Semi-compact geometry on this one. 7900 DA build:

road1.jpg


road22.jpg


road13.jpg


road5.jpg


road4.jpg


3) Custom designed Ti Unicrown (my salute to the Accutrax :) ):

I went through a few design revisions before arriving at the design of this fork. Can't wait to see how it rides! 430mm axle to crown, 45mm offset.

fork1.jpg
fork4.jpg


fork2.jpg


fork3.jpg


fork5.jpg


forkweight.jpg


4) Ti 31.8 x 680mm flatbar:

Wide is good. :)

bar2.jpg


bar3.jpg


5) Ti seatpillar (for the MTB):

This is an absolute work of art!

post5.jpg


post1.jpg


post2.jpg


post3.jpg


post4.jpg


6) Ti 'windup' skewers:

A bit of bling to finish the builds off. ;)

skewer1.jpg


skewer2.jpg


I've got a busy long-weekend this weekend. :D
 
Very nice :) I've also an itch to scratch, so I'll be watching with interest!
 
the only thing i can think of adding at this point is "woah".

watching with a lot of interest
 
Lovely rigid frame. Lovely tasty parts to dress the frame with :cool: :cool: :cool:
 
One down...

Here's a few pics of the freshly finished Roadie:

rb1.jpg


rb2.jpg


rb5.jpg


rb7.jpg


rb8.jpg


I have some nice superlight 20mm profile carbon clincher rims on the way to mate to some nice hubs I have. Should look the part on this build... and strip off a kilo...
 
great projects! that ti accutrax tribute ( :)) looks great. glad you're chainging the wheels of the roadbike. I never liked those roval wheels.

what Chinese manufacturer made this for you? how is the warranty on the products?
 
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