3dvvitch 

Hello! I thought I'd share a recent update on my online archive of titanium bicycle history: I finally have good information on the first titanium bicycle, the Phillips Titanium of 1956!

Ann's Early Titanium Archive / Pre-1970s

I, together with the British engineer and historian Sam Whitehouse, have been trying to dig up solid information on this bike for several years. Frustratingly, we both knew that what we wanted was in the November 1956 issue of the Uk magazine Cycling, but neither of us could get our hands on a copy! Being intimately familiar with Tube Investments and its various connections, Sam was able to puzzle out where the titanium would have come from for the construction, but could find no company records regarding the bicycle. Well, thanks to the British Library's online imaging services, I was able to secure relevant scans, which are now available on my website. A .pdf file of the Cycling article is linked in the text description on that page.

Enjoy!

georges1

Interesting article thanks for sharing

chain_whipped

Outstanding, and thanks for sharing. A discovery out of the tomb of cycling history.

Also, I don't know if writer / author Roger St.Pierre is available these days, however he once mentioned of this and the very beginning idea of titanium for bikes. He was in the loop with Speedwell and the other Barry Harvey and link to Teledyne.

repechage

Barry Harvey was the guy who worked with Teledyne Linar.

79pmooney

Fun! Thank you.

I rode a Merlin MTB for about half a mile around 1990. Down a New Hampshire dirt driveway then sprinted back. Knew instantly that, as a road frame built to fit me, this was it! It was nearly two decades later that I could justify spending on a custom ti frame and by that time I was in Portland and had several stems built for me by TiCycles. Been to the shop a few times. Seen their work. Knew the owner of the shop that dealt them.

Now I have two. That first and the road fix gear I've lusted after a long time. What race bikes might have evolved to had derailleurs and gear never existed. It's an early '90s race bike with a slightly evolved 1906 drive train.

3dvvitch 

I've seen his reviews for Speedwell titanium frames, but I've never read his Book of the Bicycle, I'll have to give it a look!

chain_whipped

I don't recall St.Pierre writing of titanium in his book, but the discussion may have been from a cycling publication. He's quite the historian (incl of other subjects, writer for travel and car magazines, etc.). He had Speedwell make him a titanium track bike.

As for B. Harvey, it was his upstart SoCal company working with titanium. That eventually was the lead in to Teledyne Linair to make the Titan bike. Might've been the loop hole / straw buyer in acquiring the tubing from Russia for US aerospace applications. That was Teledyne's primary goal. Clever win - win.

Anyways, back to the 50's and Phillips. That was a subject or brief mentioned by St.Pierre.

juvela

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owned an early 'lxx's Speedwell

whippy

had a reputation for changing gears when one stood up on the pedals


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3dvvitch 

The Speedwells are interesting in that reviewers seemed to believe that the company had worked out many of the design's performance kinks in later iterations - but the later bikes look outwardly identical to the early ones. Must have been subtle tweaks to tube wall thickness more than anything. It would be fun if somebody could get a hold of an early and a late bike and test ride them side by side!

juvela

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one thing striking regarding the early Speedwell vs later titanium cycles from other producers was the employment of standard steel tube diameters


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steelbikeguy

Hilary Stone does mention this Philips prototype in the second paragraph of this article about Speedwell's titanium frame...




That Philips prototype is quite intriguing! The frame design doesn't look like it would perform too well, with all of those skinny tubes. Still, there's a lot to be said simply for getting the tubes cut and welded. I'm assuming that these tubes were standard sizes for some other industry?? It does make me think of the titanium hydraulic tubing that I'd see in the factory when I worked at McDonnell Douglas. I was always tempted to see if I could sneak a scrap bit of tubing and bend a nice bottle cage for myself.

Steve in Peoria

3dvvitch 

Any vintage British bike aficionados care to weigh in on what the components on the Phillips machine were?

chain_whipped

^ nice find!

Stone and bikey history misinformation;

Flema- German Max Fleck small shop, background in plumbing and brazing, with persistence figured out how to keep impurities at the titanium joints. Maybe a dozen were built, German Olympic team road with some success. Some broke, crude looking and subsequent units required gussets. Purpose built for racing, doubt Master Fleck was much into aesthetic and the extra work and hard on his tooling to fine finish the frames.

As for America's Teledyne, of course they were sold and although low production, were raced with success, likely outsold British Speedwell.

Lets not forget the French. They purchased Teledyne framesets, painted and labeled Follis.

steelbikeguy

The story of the Follis version of the Teledyne frames doesn't get told much (or at least haven't told it to me). I do have an old issue of Bicycling magazine (July 1975) that shows an ad for the Follis Titan. Interestingly, it shows a Teledyne decal, but reversed.


high resolution version: https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...798819_k_d.jpg

I haven't seen Roger St. Pierre discuss Phillips, but he did mention Speedwell in his Retro column in Cycling Plus:







Steve in Peoria

bulgie 

Have we discussed this here yet, the fact that frame in the picture is absolutely not titanium?

You can clearly see the lugs, because they're outlined in contrasting paint. The decorative hand-painting on the seatstay top eyes was a British tradition, with each builder having their own variation, so someone might even be able to tell us what brand of steel bike that is.

Yes I know Cecil Behringer and Pino Morroni made a lugged Ti frame but (1) it didn't look like this, and (2) Speedwell never made a lugged Ti frame.

I think most likely a magazine employee got confused as to which pic was supposed to go there.

Mark B

steelbikeguy

good point!
I've had that article for many years and never picked up on that. Now that you say it, I notice that the head tube has chromed lugs too.
The second page of the article shows him with the "same" bike, but it doesn't have head tube lugs. This one might be the real Speedwell.

Steve in Peoria

bulgie 

Yes the second pic is definitely a Speedwell. They have distinctive features, several of which you can see. The fork crown being the most prominent in that pic.

Edit: on second look, the pic is too low-res to really say anything for sure. I think I let my mind fill in the gaps with what I expected to see. Might still be a Speedwell though!

3dvvitch 

Ann's Early Titanium Archive 1970s

You'll find pictures of all of those on my section on the 1970s

chain_whipped

The discussion of early titanium bikes wouldn't be complete without Cecil Behringer & Pino Moroni, brazed lugged frames! Also, spotted on ebay is one of their ventures with sourced titanium dropouts from Campagnolo.
(pic Courtesy of pb_bikes)

bulgie 

Here's a pic of that Campy Ti dropout vacuum-brazed to a Ti chainstay.



I assume Cecil did the brazing? Probably I knew and forgot. I bet the answer to that question is contained in this Bike Tech magazine article about it, "The Ultimate Titanium Frame?"
https://bulgier.net/pics/bike/Articles/Bike_Tech/'Pilot issue' ('82).pdf I haven't read it lately, like not since '82 most likely. Other good articles in that issue too, like investigating which is better, brass or silver brazing. You'll also find 5 years' worth of Bike Tech magazine scans there in bulgier.net - /pics/bike/Articles/Bike_Tech/.

Mark B

3dvvitch 

Mark, I have an extensive article on Pino and Cecil's frames, however, I had not seen the very interesting material you posted, so it looks like I will have to re-write some of what I've got on my website! Thank you!

tiger1964 

Possibly Trompe-l'œil? Although I cannot imagine why.

chain_whipped

Circa '67 Can-Am at Mosport, Dan Gurney Lola T70 dnf due clutch. Coincidence sharing names from that era 1967.




Founder and President, Harvey Titanium.

Built the company to become the world’s largest titanium distributor before selling the organisation to Metals USA.
Currently Director of International Sales, Service Steel Aerospace.
World class athelte, 8-times National Champion cyclist.
After completing his education at Leicester University, Barry Harvey joined Rolls Royce Aircraft Engine Division in 1961 as a Planning Engineer working on the Concord Engine.
In 1966 Mr Harvey joined the Bombardier Canadair Division. Subsequently he transferred to Northrop corporation as the resident Liaison Engineer
During his stay in Canada, Barry won eight Canadian championships and was selected to represent Canada in the following events:
1969/1970/1971 World Championships
1970 British Commonwealth Games
1968 & 1972 Olympic Games
1971 Pan American Games

Mr Harvey broadened his aerospace experience working for Marin Marietta Corporation, Titanium Division in California. During this period he designed and built the world’s first titanium bicycle which he used in international competition. He took this product to full scale production with Teledyne Inc.
as Director of Sales and Marketing.

In 1978 Barry founded Harvey Titanium Ltd and built his organization into the world’s largest titanium distribution company. He sold the company to Metals USA in 1997.

More: Barry Harvey interview PEZ