some Olympic recognition for a forum member

jujupunk

Congrats dude... Any news on a titanium wheelchair yet?

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Nope, I'm pretty much solely aluminium with the wheelchairs...they need to be light and stiff...just not viable with Ti at the tube sizes required (7/8-2.5" diameter) The length of unsupported tube would require a hefty wall thickness, to prevent buckling.
Also a lot of sheet metal and extrusions involved, which would be extremely hard to shield during welding.

Ti Sport in Seattle had a go with Ti a few years ago, but their race chairs flexed so much that the wheels went out of alignment every push.
Merlin even tried back in the Mid-90s for a few years. Cannondale made alu ones in 1998 but soon ceased.

If anything, carbon will be the future, but then the individual customisation would be a nightmare. :shock:

I have done a Ti bike, though


All the best,

Beautiful!

Looks like you would have no problem knocking a few UK made ti frames out if the wheelchair business goes flat then!

Do you get much international interest in your custom chairs?

What's the company called by the way, (I know of RGK.) ?
People do of course make Ti Wheelchairs. Just depends on the application I guess.

Phill:

Do you get much international interest in your custom chairs?

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Yup, there's only really about 5 companies worldwide that do them seriously. I only make 25-30 a year, with about 10 a year abroad. They generally visit for 3-5 days and I build the chair while they stay nearby. Canada, Finland, France, Belgium, Spain, Ireland...guy from Costa Rica tomorrow :shock:

My company's Draft Whelchairs. We sell other companies' chairs, too, but I specialise in elite level racing wheelchairs. Just me doing the building.

There are quite a few Ti day and sports chair manufacturers around, but racing chairs are pretty much universally in aluminium these days.
RGK do steel and Ti (and just launched a new alu BB chair at the Paras), then there's TiLite (a branch of Ti Sport), Top End from Florida, Bromakin in Loughborough do Ti, Melrose from New Zealand, and then many of the big manufacturers have a Ti model on the books (usually with sub-frames made in Taiwan (Kuschall, Meyra, Sopur).

Sleep well,