Originally Posted by
Jrasero
I never got to ride a Moots or Seven but I have owned a couple Litespeeds and a Lynskey and I can say Titanium is great but appeal is very niche. For me Titanium is a great gravel bike or endurance bike or for someone looking for a N+1 but IMO since it will always be heavier than carbon and even aluminum, cost more to produce, less manufactures produce Ti bikes, and Ti bikes are less aero, Ti bikes are rarely on my radar. Would I love another one? Sure, 100% but that supple ride everyone claims TI has is really overrated unlike Steele because on higher end Ti bikes that use lighter grade Ti, which is more brittle and stiffer thus that springy feel people claim to feel IMO in placebo in most cases and most of it is just the tires. I am not going to lie, not having to worry about paint, dropped chains, or cracking is awesome and more of a selling point more than anything in my book. I think with the rise of integrated Ti bikes, the idea of Ti coming back to amature road is more and more appealing to me
I agree with this sensible summary, and I have huge love for my custom Ti road bike.
If we leave the "unbreakable" bun fight to one side....
I've got bikes of carbon, aluminium, 531 steel and titanium, all in closely matched geometry and similar tyre size.
My ti bike has a similar comfort level to the steel and carbon bikes (maybe slightly better on that corrugated tarmac we get in rural Scotland but even that might be attributable to its fork) but the main benefits over the others is the lack of worry over denting or scratching the frame when riding over gravel, or chucking it in the van for holiday or leaning it with other bikes or against a wall/fence on a cafe stop, or EVER chipping paintwork. It looks as beautiful and untouched as the day it was built ten years ago. This one its own is a clear benefit that no carbon bike can ever match.