Originally Posted by velopig

Not to defend the pricing of the manufacturers however to play devil's advocate.


Upfront costs for the big brand carbon guys are substantial with molding, carbon layup design and substantial quality control costs. Plus you have to account for massive marketing dollars, distribution channels and company overheads.


Titanium on the other hand costs are substantially lower in a limited production environment. Materials are relatively easy to source, tubes come pre-formed, plate for dropouts, etc. Equipment-wise a Milling machine, Lathe, TIG welder and some inert gas a few other hand tools and you are off to the races.


The big issue with titanium is it does not scale very well and your costs do not drop comparatively as production increases. Thus the titanium marketing machine creates additional drivers to incent purchase, (see DeBeers and Diamonds for a comparator).


On a one-off custom build scenario, Titanium would be the material of choice for me.


K