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I have been getting into my road biking of late, but i have two bikes, an airborne ti hardtail, and an old tcr roadbike.
I am toying with the idea of swapping the hardtail for a ti roadbike frame.
my offroading is only mild xc (and i am doing ti far less recently), so i was thinking a steel frame would do.
any thoughts on which application ti is better for, damping road vibration, or trail buzz?
There's not a huge number of manufacturers doing Ti road frames these days unless you go to Litespeed or Merlin. None of the big brands like Trek, Specialized and Giant have a Ti road frame in the range anymore. Carbon is better at providing comfort and damping road vibrations.
Ti does have the advantage that it pretty much lasts forever though!
In the end it comes down to frame design and tubeset choice rather than which material is used, regardless of whether the frame is built from Ti, steel, aluminium or carbon. No one material is inherently 'better' for any one purpose (although carbon does enable much lighter weights to be achieved so possibly better for out and out racing because of that).
If you're happy with the Airborne, why not keep it and buy a nice steel road bike? Maybe even custom? Then you can choose the tubes which suit what you want from the frame. There are loads of British frame builders who would make you a gorgeous steel road frame.
Or just buy something off the shelf? Plant X were knocking out their carbon frames at a ridiculous price not too long ago.
Oh, and if you really want a Ti road bike, then why not go to [url= http://www.enigmabikes.com/ ]Enigma Bikes[/url], based right here in the UK? They have a great range of Ti road frames.
[url= http://vannicholas.com/WbmBikeDetails.aspx?ProdId=4v0alWTcua3yMjy3tbDi4Vfp2Km0lHycZLtbNXKkXwX6GBSd4EDN5TGLsMwaQNIPJX0nb%2fXci0E%3d ]Van Nicholas do some nice Ti road frames[/url]
I wouldn't ditch the Airborne, just replace the TCR frame with one of these - or, as suggested above, look at carbon.
I'd simply avoid inflating the tyres to traditional roadie levels. It also reduces rolling resistance if, like ours, your local roads aren't exactly Euro-smooth quality tarmac.
As Adam says, there are far more (and more important) variables than just frame material when it comes to ride quality.
Been some probs with Litespeed road frames cracking at the weld on headset, there's a detailed thread about it on here somewhere, I think I found it from the 'American titanium or chinese titanium' thread a few weeks ago. Worth checking it out before you spend your money.
Think the roadies have pushed the boundries of weight saving, much in the same way mtbs did in the late 90's,the titanium may have been selected to make everything even thinner and lighter - not stronger. (I have a Ti mtb frame and have no cross to bear with the stuff, like everything a careful choice is needed)
would rather have high end steel frame with sorted geometry and a nice lightweight wheelset than a TI frame, not a fan of ti as to do it well you have to spend a lot of money to get butted tubes and a nice ride.
a high end steel frame is half the price of ti and a much nicer ride imho and easier to repair. Ti doesn't last forever there are plenty of cracked frames out there.
think it's nonsense that only butted ti is worth having.
I'd agree that a nice steel frame will ride nicer than the tcr if you are on a budget - Id imagine they can be found sh.
I'd say Ti is nice for road bikes as they ride nicely, should last forever and it isn't carbon (don't like carbon me!). For MTB I think i'd rather go steel, i'd cry too much if I came off and smashed a Ti frame. For road frames consider these guys:
[url] http://www.sabbathbicycles.co.uk/ [/url]
Very friendly and helpful and the frame rides really nicely. Try here for bargain deals:
[url] http://www.fatbirds.co.uk/detail.asp/sku=FFFFR047 [/url]