It is an interesting material. Behringer built his first lugged, silver brazed Ti bike back in 1974. 3Al 2.5 V tubing that matched Columbus tubing. Included the tapered chain and seat stays as well as the oval fork blades. The lugs were scalloped nicely the fork crown was a Cinelli copy. Even had Ti copies of campy 1010 short dropouts.
One of the list members has the backup fork. I can't remember who. The backup frame weighed in the 2.5 lb. range if I remember right. Scary light for the time.
Steve Leitgen LA Crosse, WI USA
On Oct 27, 2006, at 1:37 PM, jjandkk wrote:
> The higher strength alloys did exist but were unobtainium.
>
> The lapse as noted was in the almost straight across substitution
> of ti for steel, with essentially the same design envelope. Ti is
> great stuff, but its mod. of elasticity is very different, so for a
> given section it will flex more than steel, increase the section
> diameter and things improve quickly. Long ago the Teledyne ti
> spindle was preferred as it was solid compared to the Campagnolo
> Super Record, but it still flexed more than a steel one, some guys
> could even coax an "auto" shift from the big to the small ring
> under heavy load, not good. If Campagnolo had made just a few minor
> design changes to the ti parts, to increase the diameter here and
> there, the performance would have been much better.
>
> It was noted that Stronglight and Zeus both made some minor design
> changes for ti, Zeus also used ti in their alloy track cogs to
> increase strength, I kept the waste from a 1/8" track cog I
> machined down to 3/32" and many years later in an industrial
> materials class was able by a spark test, easily see that ti was
> part of the composition, but never stated at the time.
>
> I thought ti would be great for bikes back in 1969 when I got to
> see the Autocoast Ti-22 Can-Am car being built, with ti suspension
> bits too, I saw bike frame when I saw those A arms, the cost of
> that chassis tub was $300,000. in 1969 dollars, not cheap.
>
> John Jorgensen
> Torrance Ca USA