Thought that crept into my mind while riding my Ti bike…

If Ti is such a wonderful material, why are all the Ti bikes wearing carbon forks? (including mine 🙂 )

Why not just get an all carbon bike?

I’ve looked for Ti forks but very few of the frame makers seem to make forks other than somewhat crude looking things.

There’s got to be a story there.

Ti bikes are mainly made from straight tubes. You don’t/rarely see the sort of manipulation, casting or hydroforming used for other materials. I’m guessing it’s too expensive and/or difficult to create a good shape for a fork, other than those crude looking things you refer to.

Edit- I assume you’ve seen the Van Nicholas “lefty”

There are 2 or 3 answers (I’ll get the most offensive out of the way first):

1) Snake oil innit. Ti is just a flexier, heavier material than carbon, with no real advantage over Al.

2) Titanium does allow some nice handcrafted frames with more freedom than you’d get having to have a mould for a carbon frame, forks can be a pretty standard shape.

3) People will put a range of suspension/rigid forks on, so it doesn’t make so much sense to make a frameset including forks as it does with road/CX.

Edit- Scotroutes is right that it’s harder to bend tubes, but you could fabricate a fork without any bent tubes, and it’s not impossible to bend.

because Ti forks are either v pricey or welded five-piece-back-end-of-a-dekerf/inbred design which is hardly going to showcase it’s Ti properties.

Ti throughout is lovely when dunrite 😉 :

Why not just get an all carbon bike?

For me – it gets racked up with a bunch of kids bikes and with the best will in the world scratched and bashed. I reckoned (and I think I’ve been right on this) would stick the abuse better and keep looking good. As I’m unlikely to be challenging for any race wins (I could lose last place) it made more sense as a nice road bike for the next 10 years.

My mtb (my favourite bike) is carbon, but really only gets ridden out of the door or transported by itself to events. I’ve always felt, probably incorrectly, that carbon was more susceptible to damage from scratches / gouges etc.

my blacksheep ti forks are lovely, elegant, bolt through and are soooo much slinkier than carbon

nice to see the jones ti still going strong for you stoner, after SSStu and me riding the hell out of them 🙂

Carbon, Ali (and anything painted) are definitely more susceptible to frame rub from bags and straps if you’re into that sort of thing.

gotta luv sloppy seconds thirds 🙂

that looks loverly Matt!

philjunior – Member

1) Snake oil innit. Ti is just a flexier, heavier material than carbon, with no real advantage over Al.

Flexier is the advantage 😕 It’s the entire reason I had a ti frame.

Course, you can build a soft carbon frame too but I’ve never ridden one that has the same soft-but-damped feeling of a good ti frame. I’d be very happy to buy one that felt the same… It wouldn’t look as nice, though.

I’ve a few roadie mates that have had Ti roadies built, each of them has carbon forks on.. the bikes are all kitted out with full race gear/setup too.

I like the look of a nice Ti frame and some wild outlandish painted carbon forks myself…

sexy..

and fappable (but they’re too heavy)

The bar tape on that Wittson spoils the whole bike for me. Gorgeous otherwise!

For a road/cross fork, it’s very difficult to build one out of Ti that is light, and stiff. You basically end up with a noodle that tracks horribly and judders under braking.

I knew about the Blacksheep fork. It’s really tidy, but if they can do it, why none from Lynskey for example or Van Nicholas?

I reckon a really nice lugged Ti fork would be just the job.

takes more time to do it properly and James sorts out tube thickness to rider weight and riding style and so on, so it’s not a noodly mess. If you had a mass produced version it would either be stiffer and overbuilt for wee little race pixies or a massive noodle for bigger more aggressive riders.

Have a look at the stooge fork, that is lovely

Isn’t part of the reason that certainly custom builders shy away from building forks due to CEN and the like?

That Stooge fork is exactly what I’d like. It’s straightforward.

Who makes them?

the bar tape ….. just the bar tape on that wittson.

Not the slammed dropped stem with riser drop bars …… its an abomination.

Epicyclo have a chat to Andy at Stooge cycles (jonestown on this ere forum) and he can design some to fit with your frame geometry and so on

hes jolly nice chap

http://bikepackersmagazine.com/beth-and-seb-dunnes-tour-divide-experience/

The clue is in the name….

good reason not to buy cheap chinese titanium i guess.

I felt bad that id recomended a tried and tested small block 8 to aidan for tour divide and it failed pretty quickly on him requiring a car journey in and out for a new one. – despite covering countless thousands on them my self…..i can only imagine what his mates suggesting he bought a waltly frame /forks felt after that happened – the outcome could have been very different on any one of the other descents….

You are using titanium at its worst, a lot of stress on the weld/HAZ and also it is prone to fatigue. I’m sure you could design a lot of the issues out, but would probably end up with so much material that the weight would be way above what you can achieve with CF and hence, the the market for buyers will be tiny.

The reason I have a carbon fork on my Ti frame is that I don’t want to pay a lot more money for a Ti fork that weights the same. I would prefer Ti forks like the Blacksheep example up there but don’t want to spend the money.
And I don’t have a steel fork because they are twice the weight of my carbon fork, so carbon fork it is.

nikk – Member
http://bikepackersmagazine.com/beth-and-seb-dunnes-tour-divide-experience/

That reminds me why we used to stick a bit of ash broom handle up the steerer back in the days when we used to ride lightweight lugged steel dropbar bikes offroad.

I’ve got one of those forks on a bike, I think I’d better start whittling a broom handle down. 🙂

this morning this reminded me….

i have ti frame steel forks… 440mm Project 2 TB 840grams

did have carbon but did not like them nor trust them fully after i broke 2 sets

I’m sure I can come up with some historical, esthetic, journalistic, rational (stiffness/weight) or pragmatical (availability/price) reasons I have carbon forks, but it’s just what I use.

Now, how about Ti vs carbon seatpins in a Ti frame?

is aluminium seat pin in a ti frame allowed ?

Now, how about Ti vs carbon seatpins in a Ti frame?

The logic there is that carbon has better hysteresis, a long Ti post will act like a pendulum under your weight/pedaling, whereas a carbon post will bend just as much, but not spring back with the same force.

is aluminium seat pin in a ti frame allowed ?

No. This bastard took ages to sort out for a mate.

Ti posts are lovely. I have one in the Ti frame in my earlier post, and another in my Singular Gryphon. Combined with fattish rubber they work a treat. No pogoing.

But thats an aluminium post in an aluminium spacer. (But i agree Al posts in Ti frames is pretty high risk, lots of copperslip/grease needed)

And why carbon forks? Cos they are stiffer, lighter and track better, and cheaper. Probably stronger too.

I’d not ever use Ti forks again.

a ti fork of decent quality is certainly not cheap, quite expensive to get a good one whereas everybody is tooled up to make carbon these days out of china so they can be made much cheaper. I also have a black sheep ti fork on a ti SS ibis and its lovely to ride.

No. This bastard took ages to sort out for a mate.

ah yes but lack of maintenance can happen to any material 😉

ive spent just as long removing carbon from alu , steel from steel and alu from steel.