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by ndsipa_pomu
568 days ago
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> I'm convinced titanium is a pretty optimal bike material. I'm less convinced. Firstly, I'm not convinced by the frame flex theory of ride comfort - I believe that the tyres are by far the biggest contribution to ride comfort due to the amount that they can flex which is far more than the tiny amount that the frame can. Secondly, aerodynamics is far more important (if you care about speed/effort) and titanium is tricky to get into highly tailored shapes unless you resort to fancy 3d-printed frames. Carbon would be my choice due to the design flexibility - by orienting the carbon fibres differently, components can provide strength/stiffness in one direction whilst allowing for compliance in other directions. Also the shape can be relatively easily changed - no need to always use circular tubes. It'd be interesting to see a 3d-printed titanium frame that uses some kind of honeycomb internal structure to provide super strong/light frames, but I suspect it would be exorbitantly expensive. |
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However, you might find this interesting -- No. 22 bicycles has a (very expensive, prototype) titanium aero bike: https://22bicycles.com/products/reactor-aero . It hasn't actually seen a wind tunnel but at least it looks like an aero bike and they're talking about putting it in one. It is made using 3d printing (additive manufacturing) at least in part.
> Pricing for the final production version has not yet been finalized, but we anticipate a frameset (frame, fork and headset) price in the range of USD $10,000 to $15,000.