No I'm not. Why would you even think that, as I've not reviewed anything?
Head says steel, heart says titanium
Re: Head says steel, heart says titanium
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Re: Head says steel, heart says titanium
Have you seen the Spa audax mono?
https://www.spacycles.co.uk/m11b0s143p4 ... o-Frameset
I would love a stainless steel or fancy steel (531, 631, 853 etc) singlespeed bike but my old plain gauge fixed commuter fits me well and it's only marginally more pleasant to ride my mercian 531C fixed gear and it does not fit so well. I cannot bring myself to spend the £1200 quid that I would expect a custom frame to cost.
https://www.spacycles.co.uk/m11b0s143p4 ... o-Frameset
I would love a stainless steel or fancy steel (531, 631, 853 etc) singlespeed bike but my old plain gauge fixed commuter fits me well and it's only marginally more pleasant to ride my mercian 531C fixed gear and it does not fit so well. I cannot bring myself to spend the £1200 quid that I would expect a custom frame to cost.
Re: Head says steel, heart says titanium
what's the issue with making a front fork out of titanium? rarely, if ever seems to occur.
Re: Head says steel, heart says titanium
certainly no expert but was once told Ti is too flexible for forks. There is a few. but to get the stiffness you need big tubes.
Love those Aphelion bikes never come across those before..
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Re: Head says steel, heart says titanium
I'd go for steel, but painted and left as a flat grey primer, perhaps with some black, red and while pin striping on the main triangle and a tiny bit at the top of the forks and seat stays....
It's time to go
Re: Head says steel, heart says titanium
A local guy has a stainless steel bike built by Chris Marshall. It’s a lovely bike.
I voted Titanium because I love the ride my Yukon gives me but I’d certainly consider others if I was looking.
I voted Titanium because I love the ride my Yukon gives me but I’d certainly consider others if I was looking.
Whatever I am, wherever I am, this is me. This is my life
https://stcleve.wordpress.com/category/lejog/
E2E info
https://stcleve.wordpress.com/category/lejog/
E2E info
Re: Head says steel, heart says titanium
Yes, the Young's Modulus / Modulus of Elasticity of the common Ti alloys (Ti-6Al-4V and Ti-3Al-2.5V) is around 107 - 114GPa compared to around 190 - 200GPa for steel. You'd need much bigger diameter fork legs and/or thicker walls to equal the stiffness of a steel fork.
My guess is it would look to clunky and might put off buyers, while not saving any significant weight vs a steel fork and being way heavier than a C fork.
Plus, C forks are cheaply available off the peg so a framebuilder can design their frame geometry to suit, and save a chunk of money on the bike/frameset.
Re: Head says steel, heart says titanium
I think it's mostly a matter of cost/benefit, real or maybe perceived, as in adding a lot to the first without much to the second.
I think they're technically hard to get right, though not impossible, there's several options available, both OTP and custom. I had some from Enigma, though these were recalled and eventually they decided to refund rather than replace. So that bike had, ti, steel and carbon forks without anything else changing, I couldn't tell the difference.
EDIT - Burls used to offer ti forks, I don't know if they still do, I can't find them listed on their website. When I enquired abut a frameset some years ago, ti forks were three times the price of the steel equivalent.
Re: Head says steel, heart says titanium
Forks have a very different job to frames: they aren't based around a triangle!
So I can believe they need to be made from stiffer material.
My Dynatech Ti frame - made before CF was affordable - used steel forks, quite nice skinny things.
My Airborne - like the Van Nichs, Enigmas etc - uses a CF fork.
I think it's significant that Ti never got a look in, across various eras and makers.
So I can believe they need to be made from stiffer material.
My Dynatech Ti frame - made before CF was affordable - used steel forks, quite nice skinny things.
My Airborne - like the Van Nichs, Enigmas etc - uses a CF fork.
I think it's significant that Ti never got a look in, across various eras and makers.
- sussex cyclist
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Re: Head says steel, heart says titanium
Interesting reading, thanks all. I've explored lots of options at this point, including the Aphelion, which put me off by only having a 1 year warranty. I did kind of like the look of what I think of as their plumber's mate (not sure how much copper plumbers use anymore though).
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Re: Head says steel, heart says titanium
You could get some Ti forks for MTB. I had a titanium Saracen that had Ti straight blade rigid forks which were insanely light. Kona made their Project 2 straight blade fork in Ti for a couple of years as well - if you can find any on ebay now they go for ridiculous sums of money.
In fact someone once offered me £400 for the forks there and then at a 24hr race. Saw my bike and offered me cash, payable straight after I'd finished racing. I declined...
However, carbon fibre is a lot easier to work with and has more of the desired properties of stiffness, vibration damping and low weight.
Re: Head says steel, heart says titanium
always seems to me that the claims made for the qualities of titanium outweigh the way it actually delivers over time. mostly, it seems, because it's so difficult to join perfectly.
Re: Head says steel, heart says titanium
I have ti forks on my ti bike (made by xacd). They're ok.
- sussex cyclist
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Re: Head says steel, heart says titanium
Head won over heart today after quite a battle. I am at peace. Thanks again for the contributions to this thread.
Re: Head says steel, heart says titanium
Do let us know what you bought.sussex cyclist wrote: ↑23 Jul 2022, 4:53pm Head won over heart today after quite a battle. I am at peace. Thanks again for the contributions to this thread.