Titanium Race Frames

There's no way to generalize across the board for a frame material. It's true that some titanium frames (mostly the early ones) flexed too much under some riders. A Ti frame can be designed to be as stiff or as flexible as is appropriate for the particular rider and application. To figure out what's going to be suitable for you, you're going to have to get out and ride some bikes.

The only hard data I am aware of that compares frame stiffness for different frames and materials is the Damon Rinard Frame Deflection Test here sheldonbrown.comrinard frametest.htmlOpen ↗. As you will see when you scan the results (be careful to look at frames of a similar size), there is no universal statement one can make as to the stiffness differences between Ti and CF.

Hi,

Thanks very much. The frame I'm looking at is a Van Nicolas, and seeing as I can't decide, I'm just going to go for it. Reckon it's a little more individual than a Trek 2000. Thanks for the advice.

[font=Times New Roman]Been riding a Ti hardtail MTB for about 8 years now and I love it. The only issue I have had is the seatstays just wouldn’t allow for any respectable braking once I adopted v-brakes – like cooked pasta. I slapped a Salsa brake booster arch in there and I haven’t looked back. I have upgraded the bike twice now, just keep wearing the bit and pieces out, but the frame still makes me just as happy as the day I bought it and it’s still lighter than all of my friend’s hardtails.[/font]

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[font=Times New Roman]Ultimately you just need to get out and test ride a few bikes – and the one that rides like a dream to you is the right bike.[/font]

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[font=Times New Roman]HR[/font]