Frame id needed.. painted over Titanium? Team USA. Nice!

[PanoIgano]

Probably one of the lightest TI MTB of the era?

I wonder how it rides as the main tubes don’t look to be oversized.

 

[Frankenorange]

Probably one of the lightest TI MTB of the era?

I wonder how it rides as the main tubes don’t look to be oversized.

one of the , if not THE, lightest non carbon frames ever made. I imqgine it is quite whippy to ride.

 

[Tad]

Strip the paint off back to raw metal for ultimate weight saving.

 

[bikeworkshop]

Italian bb shell in mtb restricts groupset choice
Assuming it's 135 dropout and cantis for 26?

 

[Woz]

Very nice. Don't get why it's painted though - oh um, but it does look very nice.

Plenty of BB-UN72 ITA on Ebay. ITA cups are inter-changeable with BSA with some eeerrrr careful manipulations not involving a hammer.

 

[PanoIgano]

one of the , if not THE, lightest non carbon frames ever made. I imqgine it is quite whippy to ride.

Yeah let us know of a ride report when you get it ready.

 

[rydelhigh]

Probably one of the lightest TI MTB of the era?

I wonder how it rides as the main tubes don’t look to be oversized.

Very nice. Don't get why it's painted though - oh um, but it does look very nice.

Plenty of BB-UN72 ITA on Ebay. ITA cups are inter-changeable with BSA with some eeerrrr careful manipulations not involving a hammer.

My understanding is the Brazilian brand Caloi contracted a US manufacturer to build titanium frames for their USA mountain bike racing team in the mid 90s. The unused frames were sold off to US distributors. Some speculate Litespeed may have manufactured the frames for Caloi but I have found no evidence of that. However, the yellow "TITANIUM" decal is exactly like the ones found on Litespeed frames, it's under the clear coat. As for the paint, Caloi's logo was typically found inside a purple block, I'm assuming that's why the bike is purple with "Team USA" decals.

As for the ITA bottom bracket, they are easy to find even in XTR M900 version.

Unfortunately the frame is too big for me, it appeared smaller at first glance, I guess because the weight and the non-oversized tubing, and a bit of wishful thinking on my end. I will most likely list for sale.

Frame is 135 rear spacing, for 26" wheels and cantilever brakes.

One more tidbit of information, in 1996 Caloi hired Merckx to manufacture road bikes for their Motorola Team. They requested a titanium model road bike, and at the time Litespeed was manufacturing all the titanium Merckx. So the Caloi Ti team road bike was indeed fabricated my Litespeed.

 

[Thias]

There only were 5 companies in the early 90ties that were able to make titanium frames, I think.
They were Sandvik, Lightspeed, Merlin and Russian company who's name escapes me r.n. And then the (Swiss?) company Revel but they were very niche and did not produce frames for different brands.
So at that time the Sandvik made frames had those characteristic bullet shaped dropouts.

Edit: And I guess there also were a few smaller ones like Lavoie ... and Morati. The russians - were they called IBS? Not sure.

 

[rydelhigh]

Thanks for the info. To be clear.. it looks nothing like a Litespeed.

I'm just assuming the client (Caloi) gave there build specs to the manufacturer.

Someone on another group mentioned they thought it could be russian made. I'm not familiar with any of the russian frames. If you can find an example please share.