Titanium The first titanium road bike frame, weighing about 2.8lb (1.25kg), was displayed by Phillips at the 1956 Cycle Show. Road cyclists then had to wait until 1972 to see a production titanium frame by Speedwell Gear Case Co., Birmingham; an example was ridden by Spanish cyclist Luis Ocaña in the 1973 Tour de France.
Frame construction The Speedwell titanium frame was quickly followed by versions from German bike manufacturer Flema and the fabled Teledyne Titan from the US. The Teledyne frame was carefully designed to combat titanium’s known deficiency when compared to steel, and it featured slightly oversized tubes to add stiffness. Its titanium fork and slender rear stays ensured that the Teledyne provided a “comfortable” ride, but it suffered from random breakages just as the US bike boom of the day came to an end. Regarded as soft, expensive, and fragile, titanium bikes faded from the public imagination until the mid-1980s when the metal’s reputation was rescued by US firms Merlin Metalworks and Litespeed. The first to manufacture road bike frames using butted titanium tubes, Merlin also built the first using the important 3Al–2.5V titanium alloy, which forms the bulk of production today. Raced by American road cyclist Greg LeMond and his Z Team in the 1991 Tour de France, the Merlin Extra Light realized the material’s potential. By this time Litespeed had built enough of a reputation for titanium fabrication and welding that Italian frame building maestro Irio Tommasini sent a craftsman to the factory to find out how it was done. Titanium’s glory years followed as teams such as the French GAN rode titanium road and time trial bikes on the European professional race scene, and titanium gurus such as Scot Nicol of the US Ibis created an aura of exclusivity around high-cost frames. The peak hit in 1998, when Swiss cyclist Alex Zuelle raced a Litespeed Vortex in the Tour de France and US contender Lance Armstrong rode the same firm’s Blade in that year’s world time trial championship. 22
THE BIKE DECONSTRUCTED
Pricing Within a few years, titanium stopped being the pro racer’s choice on performance grounds and prices slumped as low-cost frames from Eastern Europe and China arrived. Its special qualities remain, however, and a number of smaller companies have steadily rebuilt its reputation. The high cost of titanium until the end of the 1990s ensured that titanium frames remained for the well-heeled while the aura of the US brands deterred small-scale producers from entering the market. With the drop in the cost of raw materials and rising demand, firms such as Enigma, UK, and Van Nicholas, Netherlands, have since broadened titanium’s appeal by building anything from touring bikes to full-on racing machines. Enigma’s entry into bespoke manufacture has put the titanium frame buyer in the same position as one looking at steel; able to specify the small details that make a road bike more than simply a fine high-performance machine.