Groasters

Despite the fact that we can find anecdotes of cracked ti frames via Google searches, breakages are rare and I believe the assertion that ti frames are more prone to breakage in normal use than other frame materials is hype/urban myth.

Three broken ti frames for one person is beyond rare. I'd suggest there's a common denominator for these three bikes which was a contributory factor.

Trakhak

If you search for images using "cracked titanium bike" as the search term, you'll find plenty. Probably no more than any other frame material, though, adjusting for the numbers of frames built of each material that are out there.

My take (considering metal frames only, since carbon can be manipulated to achieve wildly disparate design goals):

For strength, steel > titanium > aluminum; for lightness, aluminum > titanium > steel; for durability, all roughly equal (since no manufacturer wants to have to replace lots of frames under warranty, they're all designed for reasonable reliability); for ride comfort/quality (for a given geometry and, most importantly, wheelbase), all maybe roughly equal, though some people suggest that the ride of titanium bikes is superior.

Add in handling under load (not something a lot of people talk about) and, in my experience, the ranking is aluminum being slightly better than steel. (Experience with titanium is limited - only post-repair road testing back in my bike shop days.)

I loved riding my high-end steel bikes for 40 years; I've loved riding my high-end aluminum bikes for 15 years (there's some overlap, of course). Was never much tempted by titanium, especially after my first two friends who'd bought titanium bikes both cracked them. One of them received a warranty replacement frame and proceeded to crack that one, too. In fairness, though, he was a strong racer who averaged around 250 miles per week for most of the year.

rekmeyata

Teledyne and the Panasonic had a history of being prone to cracking, that was due to the early days of making TI frames the technology wasn't good yet. The Litespeed did not have any history of cracking, but since Litespeed was an expensive bike, and it has a lifetime warranty the poster should have sent it back, which leads me to believe he's not being honest and just wants to berate titanium, or somehow severely abused the Litespeed and they wouldn't cover it under warranty. Nobody with a bike that expensive is going to pass up the warranty unless they got so much money they simply don't care.

boomer58 

Easyupbug - I have a question about your bike. What kind of handlebars are those ? I had ones just like them on my old Fuji and I loved them. I don't see ones like that anymore.

easyupbug 

If this shape is what you are looking for Cinelli calls them Solida and Easton calls them "elliptical" for some unknown reason. PM me if you know what you need I have a lot of old bars.

Camilo

Deda calls them Anatomic

boomer58 

Thank you Easyupbug and Camilo for you replies. Now I know. The stuff you learn on here, it's amazing. boomer

Toadmeister

Chewie! GO plug the professor into the Hyperdrive!

bikoman

Whats that rack in the third picture?