Titanium Road Bikes

[Hergest]

Greg Lemond recently rode up the Colle delle Finestre as part of his Giro media stuff with Juan Antonio Flecha. Greg rode his steel Washoe as you would expect for his promotion of the bike but it is interesting to see Flecha who would have plenty of options for bikes chose a Ti bike. I can't tell the brand though.

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[singlespeedscott]

Nice vid. He's certainly bigger than his racing days but Greg still got a solid set of legs.

I had to laugh when he said he had a 32tooth sprocket on the back. In his racing days he normally ran a 41x21 and cracked out the 23tooth for the hilly days

[Uncle Just]

Flecha's bike with its flared/tapered head tube looks like a Passoni. If so big $$.

[coldst]

I jumped on the Titanium bandwagon a few months ago and have just finished building it up to final spec with a new Ultegra 6800 groupset.

- Lynskey R255 2014
- Fulcrum Quattro wheels, GP4000 S II 25c
- Ultegra 6800 group set
- Thompson set back post, Zipp service course alloy bars, Deda stem

[rheicel]

^nice

[Comedian]

I jumped on the Titanium bandwagon a few months ago and have just finished building it up to final spec with a new Ultegra 6800 groupset.

- Lynskey R255 2014
- Fulcrum Quattro wheels, GP4000 S II 25c
- Ultegra 6800 group set
- Thompson set back post, Zipp service course alloy bars, Deda stem

Looks great... and what do you think??

[tallywhacker]

A new commuter

Habanero titanium classic road
mostly Shimano 105
Ritchey Carbon Pro fork and stem
3T Rotundo bars
Cane Creek brake levers and headset
Pro-lite Como wheelset
Vittoria Rubino pro tyres
Dura-ace downtube shifters
Deda seatpost and Selle San Marco Concor saddle
Vuleta cranks and chain rings (cheapy no-names but the only black square taper cranks I could find)

[battler2]

I jumped on the Titanium bandwagon a few months ago and have just finished building it up to final spec with a new Ultegra 6800 groupset.

- Lynskey R255 2014
- Fulcrum Quattro wheels, GP4000 S II 25c
- Ultegra 6800 group set
- Thompson set back post, Zipp service course alloy bars, Deda stem

interesting. what fork did you use? generic chinese carbon? i can't see the R255 sticker on the top tube, you remove it? fun building bikes isn't it oh and where you buy it from? direct or via au dealer?

[coldst]

I jumped on the Titanium bandwagon a few months ago and have just finished building it up to final spec with a new Ultegra 6800 groupset.

- Lynskey R255 2014
- Fulcrum Quattro wheels, GP4000 S II 25c
- Ultegra 6800 group set
- Thompson set back post, Zipp service course alloy bars, Deda stem

interesting. what fork did you use? generic chinese carbon? i can't see the R255 sticker on the top tube, you remove it? fun building bikes isn't it oh and where you buy it from? direct or via au dealer?

It's a Shimano PRO carbon fork that was on clearance at c r c and super light(364g with full steerer). The decals started flaking about a week after I bought it which I was disappointed about so I removed them. I contacted the dealer eventually they sent me a set of R255 decals free of charge and I haven't felt the need to put them on.

I purchased from BikePro the AU dealer because of the weak AUD and import GST because it was $1000+ and the benefit of local warranty and faster delivery. BikePro had average pre and post sales service, when I first wanted to order only the owner could do orders and he never seemed to be available and I had to chase up the invoice and tracking number myself.

I jumped on the Titanium bandwagon a few months ago and have just finished building it up to final spec with a new Ultegra 6800 groupset.

- Lynskey R255 2014
- Fulcrum Quattro wheels, GP4000 S II 25c
- Ultegra 6800 group set
- Thompson set back post, Zipp service course alloy bars, Deda stem

Looks great... and what do you think??

I really like how it came out but I am still finding my groove when riding and trying to get my position right.

Even with the relaxed frame geometry I run a short stem of 90mm and found that when I throw it into a corner the handling feels compromised. Possibly because of not enough weight over the front wheel. I also run a setback post meaning most of my weight is further back which doesn't help.

I found that rough surfaces are more jarring than I expected even when running 90 psi in the tyres where my comparison is a steel road bike on the same surfaces. I think it might come down to a combination of the deep section(35mm) alloy wheels with low spoke count and the lightweight carbon race fork to a small degree although I understand most of this type of comfort comes from tyre choice and pressure.

[coldst]

A new commuter

Habanero titanium classic road
mostly Shimano 105
Ritchey Carbon Pro fork and stem
3T Rotundo bars
Cane Creek brake levers and headset
Pro-lite Como wheelset
Vittoria Rubino pro tyres
Dura-ace downtube shifters
Deda seatpost and Selle San Marco Concor saddle
Vuleta cranks and chain rings (cheapy no-names but the only black square taper cranks I could find)

I've seen Hab cycles around and saw this bike pop up on their facebook page, how much did the frame cost delivered to AU? I wouldn't mind one of their 29er frames.

[tallywhacker]

Mark gave me a really good deal on the frame and fork. All up the frame/fork/headset/Ritchey torque wrench and freight was $1100US (around $1440AU - terrible exchange rate). Duty, GST and "handling fee" was $265.
I looked at dealing directly with Chinese builders (XADC) but it was easier (and eventually cheaper) the go through Habanero. They import the frames and do their own QC on them. They also check that everything is square and will face the bb and headtube.

[rheicel]

4th version of my XACD

[boss]

4th version of my XACD

The firefly stickers ruin it. Sorry.

[Drizt]

Yeh, fake make me sad

[rheicel]

Yeh, fake make me sad

I only have that sticker lying around to match the blue headset and break the Ti monochrome.

[boss]

Get another sticker. In blue. Ruins the whole bike man.

[rheicel]

Get another sticker. In blue. Ruins the whole bike man.

nah, will just take the stickers off mate. Or maybe put it XACD there in blue so it will be ORIGINAL ei!

[boss]

Whatever's clever. There's nothing wrong with unbranded/OEM gear (at all), but sticking a brand name sticker on a non-branded item just rubs me up the wrong way.

[rheicel]

Whatever's clever. There's nothing wrong with unbranded/OEM gear (at all), but sticking a brand name sticker on a non-branded item just rubs me up the wrong way.

Yep, fair enough mate, good call!

[barefoot]

My XACD is currently "road grime" branded.

No, I haven't had a sticker made up with that lettering... just that my bike is godaawful filthy and needs a good wash. It was putrid even before I rode (and slid and crashed) in a big pool of oil last week. I had reason to turn it upside down a few weeks ago, and nearly barfed when I saw the amount of gunk stuck to the downtube and under the BB.

It's down to the stage that I really should strip it down and get some proper toxic chemicals onto it. And maybe buff it up with a bit of steel wool, to get it back to as-good-as-new

[Mulger bill]

The firefly stickers ruin it. Sorry.

Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal!

[kb]

Shiny!

[mmc22]

snip... And maybe buff it up with a bit of steel wool, to get it back to as-good-as-new ...snip

Don't use steel wool, use green Scotchbrite pads for a good even brushed finish. Steel wool has the potential to embed itself in the frame and leave rust spots.

Anyway came here to ask about refinishing frames. I've seen a few really good examples of different finishes around and thinking about having my brushed frame redone as matte blasted with maybe some paint also.

Here's mine again;


Detail shots from Firefly... mine is like the one on the left, was thinking of having it redone like the one on the right;



Anyone know of any implications of having a brushed frame blasted? any extra stresses etc.

Also maybe some paint schemes, probably like a 50/50 blend of Ti back-end with painted forks, stem, bars... maybe top-tube and some graphics.

[rheicel]

^nice

[eljimberino]

Both look good to me.