2manyoranges
Senior Retro Guru
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Ti is a dirty, dirty metal in terms of its environmental impact. Carbon is bad too. But the ti frames which I have had have been pretty wonderful things. And the handlebars too. And the ti railed saddles, And the seatposts. I had ti-axled onZa HO pedals. They did pretty well, and seemed to wear no differently than the CroMo axles as they passed through the bronze bushing. I was pretty assiduous in just dropping a tiny amount of oil on the axle of each pedal in order to keep the bronze bushing saturated. At end of ride, wipe clean, drop of oil on axle…before next ride, wipe clean, off you go. They lasted ages.
On my modern bikes I currently am running Hope F20s and Burgtec Penthouse 4 alloys. Nice to have a box of pedals and spares which allow easy maintenance and which are nicely renewable rather than throw away. I recently acquired a pair of secondhand Burgtec penthouse 4s and turned out they had ti axles. Result! I thought. Just pull the pedals apart and renew the bushings and bearing. Nope. When I pulled them apart there was huge wear on the axle - about .5mm off the diameter. Now junk. When neglected, the Penthouse CroMo pedal axles can rust, but they don‘t wear like that.
I also have a Hope pedal I am working on (major headache) where the CroMo axle broke at the point the diameter reduces on the inboard side. Not me doing the pedal strikes, someone else, but I am doing the refurb.
Now…ti pedal axles can save about 100-150g which is not to be sniffed at. But it doesn’t feel like a sensible application of ti. Slow rotation, lots of load, big energy inputs from pedal strikes. Hope don‘t do ti axles, although after market axles are available from SuperStar.
What do you think……?
On my modern bikes I currently am running Hope F20s and Burgtec Penthouse 4 alloys. Nice to have a box of pedals and spares which allow easy maintenance and which are nicely renewable rather than throw away. I recently acquired a pair of secondhand Burgtec penthouse 4s and turned out they had ti axles. Result! I thought. Just pull the pedals apart and renew the bushings and bearing. Nope. When I pulled them apart there was huge wear on the axle - about .5mm off the diameter. Now junk. When neglected, the Penthouse CroMo pedal axles can rust, but they don‘t wear like that.
I also have a Hope pedal I am working on (major headache) where the CroMo axle broke at the point the diameter reduces on the inboard side. Not me doing the pedal strikes, someone else, but I am doing the refurb.
Now…ti pedal axles can save about 100-150g which is not to be sniffed at. But it doesn’t feel like a sensible application of ti. Slow rotation, lots of load, big energy inputs from pedal strikes. Hope don‘t do ti axles, although after market axles are available from SuperStar.
What do you think……?
