Best Retro Titanium Frame?

[legrandefromage]

just thinking out loud really - theres all that stuff from before we were born that was the mutts nuts and the ultimate in engineering at the time. All forgotten about by us thirty somethings.


Personally, not owning anything Ti untill my Airborne came along, I'm still fascinated by it's design.

Wonder what will be the BITD frame when we're 60+ ?

 

[messiah]

There was a Merlin Elevator in the classifieds a while bike. Uber Ti Niche, steep price but talk about exclusive...

I've only ridden a few Ti bikes and been mostly underwhelmed; possibly more due to sizing, set up and quality than the so called "magic ride properties".

Of the two Merlins I have ridden, one was the wrong size but felt nice, the other was set up for a 23stone Millionaire - think high rise stem, riserbars and vertical bar ends!

Kona Heihei and Marin Titanium frames were nice but not significantly better than the top end steel at the time, the GT I tried was too large.

Other not so nice Ti frames were a Titanium Red, X-lite and Airborn, which were all a bit flexy and nowhere near as good as a nice steel frame (the benchmark).

I've never owned a Ti frame - it's always been too hard to justify the 2-3 times price tag over a nice steel frame. But that doesn't stop me wanting one...

 

[hamster]

Litespeeds were good when owned by Lynskey, but churned out far too many after ABG got hold of them..and made some marketing horrors like Alu frames...a bit like Porsche making skateboards.

So an old Litespeed is a nice idea...

 

[neilll]

So an old Litespeed is a nice idea...

Old 'proper' Litespeed - Pre 1999

 

[Pickle]

Nuff said.

 

[scant]

Nuff said.

I do like those, rode a mates for 3months. back ends slightly flexier & according to my old work mate andy gordon the early 1s used to crack. later 1s rode "light" as in they felt even lighter to ride than they did to pick up

 

[Elev12k]

Phoenix Ti


...and of course the Miyaya Elevation 8,000 is very good

Serotta had a a quite advanced one with butted tubing, the ATi. Don't know whether any good.

 

[Pickle]

I do like those, rode a mates for 3months. back ends slightly flexier & according to my old work mate andy gordon the early 1s used to crack. later 1s rode "light" as in they felt even lighter to ride than they did to pick up

Never had the joy of trying one But, The Ken is allowing me to have a raz on his at MM. I cant wait!

 

[jimbo-xc]

ti

Orange Vitamin T?
A riding mate has a late 1990's Park-Pre Ti in the garage doing nothing that I have my eye on.
My modern mtb is a 2003 Airborne Lancaster with Reba's, Mavic Crosstrails, Hope Mini's, XT wrong way round shifting. I like it, always lusted after a ti bike although I realise it's a "budget" ti frame.

 

[tintin40]

Merlin