Kimmo

Suggest OP tries again with, Lightest ti frame?

That1.3kg seems pretty light for ti. Be surprised if there's anything much lighter.

DangerousDanR

My Lynskey is a little under 20 pounds for a 61 cm top tube bike. It could be lighter. Swap all the lower grade Campagnolo out for Super Record. Swap EPS for mechanical (no way!). Carbon fiber handlebars and stem, saddle and a lighter fork. A set of Ti or CF pedals. That might get me a three pounds.

I could save maybe a pound by switching over to Lightweight Meilenstein Obermayer tubular wheels and tubular tires, but then I would also need to get down from a fairly trim 105 kg, not including the bike, to the 90 kg limit on the wheels. I might be able to do that, but it would mean losing over 20 kg. And for probably $8,000 USD.

I think I'll stick with what I have.

Atlas Shrugged

I think you may be projecting! Enjoy.

Kimmo

Looks pretty to me.

https://cyclingtips.com/2018/08/bike...-cycles-wagyl/

indyfabz

My custom ti frame built by a small builder didn’t cost as much as you might think. In 2016 it was around $3,500. May have been a bit less. Just don’t remember the exact price. The Cerakote finish added another $250 or so.

Kimmo

Pretty sure US(?)$3.5k in 2006 dollars is a fair bit for a frame in anyone's money...

Chi_Z

you want full custom with tubing proportional to your weight, a stock frame will assume your weight 300lb+ because lawyers

DeadGrandpa

The frame alone cost $3,500? Or the entire bike? I recently bought a complete Ti bike, and it was substantially more than that. Yes, there were carbon parts to enhance the bling and keep the weight down, but I didn't buy two, though I wanted to do so. Decided to suffer with the aluminum frame bikepacking bike that I already had. It's only a few extra pounds. And by "a few", I mean 6-7.
But the cerakote finish sounds nice.

indyfabz

Frame only. IIRC, the Enve fork was maybe another $400. I lost the receipt, but I’m sure the builder has a copy on file. DA 9000. All new saddle, bars, seat post, seatpost clamp, stem, CK headset, cables, Parlee BB. No carbon parts, and the wheels were swapped over, although I did have to pay for a CK hub insert to convert from 10 to 11 speed. IIRC, I put down a $300 deposit. When I picked it up I wrote a check for over $6,000 that included 8% sales tax minus a 2% discount for not using a credit card. It also included shipping the frame to and from the guy who did the Cerakote. It was in-state, so that probably wasn’t that much.

The builder estimated the work on the frame was 60 hrs., though not all of that was active time. For example, the frame sat in a bath for 4 hrs. to remove surface impurities. My ex is in the process of having one built. I’ll see if I can get a price. He’s a meticulous guy, and his shop is amazing. Won best MTB at NAHBS twice back in the 2000s. Got mine just before he started making his own dropouts and doing discs.

Pizzaiolo Americano 

Pics on a scale?

mstateglfr 

So thsts $4500 for the frame in today's $.
Then $840 in current $ for fork and coating.

$5400 out the door for a frame and fork. This is relative for each of us, but deadgrandpa's comment doesn't seem too far out there.

indyfabz

Sorry. I messed up. It was 2016, not 2006.

indyfabz

Sorry. It was 2016. You should have seen what IF was charging for its shot peened to frame back in 2005 when I got my steel frame from them. I think it was at least $4K sans fork

v70cat

True but carbon is more aero, lighter and sexy.

jadocs

Mine is 19.5lbs, medium frame ready to ride.

masi61

I would be curious about the bare frame weight of the Motobecane titanium. I’m assuming this is a BikesDirect bike. I would guess that since these bikes are made to hit a particular price point, the frame even if titanium might use more utility grade (I.e. straight gauge) titanium tubing. As you probably already know, early titanium “weight weenie” frames such as the Teledyne Titan were terrible noodles. They were not “Clyde friendly” frames, nor could you stand to climb on such a frame without some trepidation that you might crack the welds in the bottom bracket or somewhere else. The Wittson Illuminati titanium frame I am building up is listed at something lime 1440 grams, a bit portly if your reference of comparison is current carbon fiber state of the art. The Illuminati’s press release says it is the stiffest titanium frame ever. Who knows if this is hyperbola or maybe true considering comparable titanium road disc frame designs. The top tube has a diamond cross section which seems chunky to me. I have no idea how it’s weight compares to traditional round (butted) titanium frame tubes.

i purchased a very small Veritas titanium road bike used for $675 and have changed out the wheels, cassette, handlebars, stem, seatpost, saddle & pedals to personalize it for me. The fact that it is my lightest road bike (so far), is a real plus. The oversized top tube and down tube, the titanium tubing’s built in shock absorption combined with my decision to do an experiment to see if a “too small” bike can be adapted for my just sub 6’ height...has delighted and surprised me. I have learned so much from this build. Sloping top tube and maximum exposure of the Ritchey “Flexlogic” seatpost makes a crazy comfortable perch that is shock absorbing for bad pavement but super tossable for out of saddle climbing, I love it:



A slightly smaller frame is a lighter frame too.

deacon mark

My Ti bike cost just less than $3000 for the entire bike. Has Ultegra 6800 full. Now to be sure I just sent a regular check in the mail to avoid the cost of credit cards for the maker, and I got a great price. I cannot believe some of the higher prices especially Moots. Are they that much better?

DangerousDanR

I can't say if a Moots is "that much better", but I can say that it is made in a high wage rate country. The materials don't cost much more for a North American, European, Japanese or other high wage rate country builder. It is labor. Including engineering, and the Lynskey R350 I have is a more sophisticated design than the Habanero. I am not saying it is better, because I really don't know. I am saying that the Lynskey takes more skilled labor time to fabricate than the Habanero.

My Lynskey was also made in a high wage rate country, but I am a bottom feeder. I got just the frame on sale for under $1,000 and built it up with eBay finds, like a Campagnolo Chorus EPS for under $400, and used an already owned wheel set which I can move between bikes. All told it was right around $2,000 to build. Lynskey wants a little under $3000 for a brand new Helix Pro with 105 group set and rim brakes.

DeadGrandpa

I'm not familiar with the Moots. I bought a Bearclaw Thunderhawk. Later, via YouTube, I discovered that Alibaba has titanium frames (looking identical to mine) for less than a thousand bucks, but I also saw a video about various titanium frames cracking. It's a crap shoot for quality. Hopefully, buying from a domestic firm, even though the frame was made in China, there is a Quality Check on the frames he sources. And if, as in my case, I mistakenly ordered too large of a frame, he was good enough to send me a smaller frame, letting me change the components over to it and return the larger frame. I don't know if I could have done that with Alibaba.

stran11

Koyote

I follow Independent Fabrication on Instagram. I don't know if they paint 'em or use cerakote, but some of those bikes are very pretty.

aliasfox

My Lynsey R270 Disc, in ML with Ultegra, came in at about 21 lbs, or 9.5 kilo. Not that light, but there are easy places to lose hundreds of grams at a time were I so inclined:
- Swapping out the Conti Ultra Sports for some GP5k could save about 50g per wheel (done on rear wheel)
- The Vision Team 30 wheels are quoted at 1900g, a set of nice 30mm profile carbon wheels could save 500g on that
- The stock FSA seatpost is heavy enough to carry around as a weapon, switched it for a Thomson Masterpiece, saved 150g there
- Swapping the 11-34 cassette (which I don’t really need around NYC) for an 11-30 can save 70g

So just doing the swaps I want could get the bike down 820g, or nearly 2lbs from stock weight. This doesn’t even factor in true lightweight parts or considerations, such as carbon handlebars, race tires, latex tubes, or a carbon railed saddle, which could squeeze out another 400g/1lbs. Of course, at 185-190 lbs, I’m much more than 2-3lbs over ideal, so skipping the Oreos while working from home could probably offer just as much benefit...

edited to correct an autocorrect that corrected wrongly.

colnago62

Carbon can be shaped to make a frame more aerodynamic and still be reasonably light.

Cyclist0108

My frame builder charges $1K more for a titanium vs. steel frame. At the time, I didn't want to spring for it, but now I realize that is a very good deal (and he has a great reputation, so it really is a good deal, although his steel frames are by no means inexpensive either).