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Old 12-25-21, 07:07 AM
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shelbyfv
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Originally Posted by Parkyy16
TL;DR: Any feedback for titanium ride when compared to their steel/aluminum/carbon equivalent?

Over the years, I've tried aluminum, carbon, and steel, but haven't had the chance to ride Ti before. Nor do I see an opportunity to test ride one anytime soon. Nobody I know owns one and the bike shops near me don't carry any.

The engineer in me tells me that any material can ride similarly, depending on the frame weight, tubing diameter, tire size, tire pressure, and other components on the bike.

However, my real life experiences in test rides and friends' bikes differ a bit. I'm sure it's confirmation bias, but most aluminum bikes were stiff and had a harsher road buzz, carbon bikes were very stiff, but it deadened the road buzz a lot, and steel bikes have been at either extremes of stiffness, and generally less buzzy than aluminum, but buzzier than carbon.

I'm sure the ride characteristics of each frame material is largely based on consumer demand: people want carbon bikes to be stiff at the BB, steel bikes to be compliant, aluminum to feel somewhere in between, and Titanium to feel a certain way.

Ride feel, to me, is largely about the road buzz and the way the vibration from the road gets transmitted to the rider. Most of my test rides were on road bikes with 700x25mm road tires, on 54cm-ish frames. Most with aluminum seat post and aluminum stem/bars.

The things I've read online about Titanium bikes are the cliché (which is the same case with Steel, Aluminum, and Carbon):
- Titanium has a magic carpet ride
- Titanium is a "forever" bike
- Nothing rides like Titanium
On the other hand, I've also read:
- Titanium can have largely the same ride quality as steel, just lighter by 300-400grams or so for a production bike
- Titanium isn't forever, because of potential welding issues, and is harder and pricier to repair when/if it breaks
- The only reason to get titanium is for corrosion resistance and looks
I'm leaning towards the arguments against ti, but I do like the idea of corrosion resistance and not worrying about paint chips or scratches.

Would somebody who has ridden Ti bikes be able to comment in more specific detail?

The best type of input would be comparison between equivalent bikes: production titanium endurance road bike vs production steel/alu/carbon endurance road bike with same or similar components, similar fit, geometry, etc.

______________________________________________
Unrelated to my question above:

What I'm considering is a bike between my Ritchey Road Logic and my Breadwinner B-Road. I do my "fast" rides on my Ritchey Logic Disc with 28mm tires, longer/relaxed road rides with the Breadwinner(endurance geo w/ 38mm tires), and short rides with family/friends on the VO Neutrino(Mini Velo w/ swept back bars).

I have toe overlap with 700x38mm on the Breadwinner and I want to run 42mm semi knobby tires without worrying about toe overlap. I've never fallen from toe overlap, but I do have some annoyances at stop lights with my Soma Smoothie's toe overlap at times. I'm aware that toe overlap is a problem that I can avoid with riding technique, but after riding my Neutrino for the last year, I realized that I love not having any toe overlap to worry about in the first place.

I'm 5'9", 158lbs give or take 5 lbs depending on the time of the year. I don't put out much power, don't race, ride 99% on semi-crappy roads, mostly ride alone at the pace I want to go at. Sometimes, that's 12mph average, other times, that's 18mph average.

The bikes I've tried over the years:
- Aluminum
- Cannondale CAAD12 - Very stiff, the least buzzy aluminum frame I've tried
- Giant Defy AL - Stiff, fairly buzzy, quintessential aluminum frame, in my experience
- Jamis Ventura - Stiff, very buzzy
- Specialized Allez - Very Stiff, buzzy
- Carbon
- Felt Z85 - Very Stiff, nice and quiet ride
- Felt Z5 - Very Stiff, nice and quiet ride
- Scott Addict - Very Stiff, a bit more road buzz than other carbon bikes
- A bunch I'm not remembering. Sprinkle of Trek, Specialized, Jamis, and others...
- Steel
- Ritchey Road Logic - Stiff, 2nd quietest of all the steel bikes I've tried
- Breadwinner B Road - A bit too stiff for me, a bit buzzier than the Ritchey
- Jamis Satellite Comp - Not stiff at all, quietest of all steel bikes I've tried
- Mercier Kilo WT - Stiff, buzziest of most steel bikes I've tried
- Various Surly bikes - Stiff & Buzzy
- Soma Smoothie - Stiff enough, very smooth
- Magnesium
- VAAST A/1 in 700c - Stiff & Light! about as quiet as carbon. I'd buy one of these if I didn't have to worry about paint chips.
Below is the Geo I'm thinking of:

I don't plan on getting this bike anytime soon, just wondering what other people here think. Probably sometime around 2023 or 2024.

Also, paying my bike pic taxes...



Happy Holidays!
When I ordered my Lynskey I asked which rode most like steel but weighed less. They said the straight gauge frame, which turned out to be lighter than the butted frames they offered at the time. It's comfortable but definitely not stiff and wouldn't suit everyone.
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