Carbon vs Titanium

Ti v Carbon? Carbon. Cheaper,
Ti v Carbon? Carbon. Cheaper, lighter, stiffer (which doesn’t equal less comfortable). I have a bespoke Ti frame from a well known US manufacturer – which I love – and several carbon frames. The latter don’t stir the heart strings as much as the Ti frame when you look at them but they simply perform better and would be much, much cheaper to replace.

Comfort. The idea that Ti is inherently more comfortable that carbon or any other material is complete and utter tosh. My Ti frame has lots of toe overlap/a short wheelbase, which makes it an awesome crit bike, but it was built to race so it’s stiff. Most myths about frame materials (aluminium is stiff, Ti is flexy, carbon is “dead”) are only true of cheap versions of said materials. Cheap aluminium – and high quality aluminium has become rare with the virtual ubiquity of carbon – will ride “stiff”. Cheap Ti is flexy. Etc. Here’s a little secret that bike manufacturers don’t tell you: if you want comfort put on wider tyres (25mm or even 27mm – of course the latter may mean that you need a frame with more clearance) and reduce tyre pressure (90/85psi). And select a bike with a small diameter seat post (27.2mm) not something with a 31.8mm.

If you can afford a bespoke Seven/Indy Fab/Moots etc, you should buy one. Really, everyone should – everyone should experience the pleasure of the process and the joy of owning your own (literally) bike. But if you can’t, you should buy a carbon bike because bikes made from carbon are better tools and at the end of the day that is what a bike is.

Hi all. I’ve read this post
Hi all. I’ve read this post with interest. I currently ride an alu Felt hybrid. I’ve started cycling with a guy riding a Scott Alu road bike with carbon forks and I just can’t keep up, especially when we hit a hill. Hence I’m looking for a road bike that will be comfortable over a distance, say up to 100 miles. Most rides are likely to be in the 20 to 40 mile bracket. To put it into context I’m 50 years old with a dodgy lower back, hence comfort is my prime focus followed by the need to cover miles more effortlessly.

So far I’ve tested the following:

Felt F5 – really quick but doubt I could hack it it over distance
Trek Domane 4.3 – I liked the seat post decoupler and it felt really smooth
Giant Defy Composite 1 – seemed ok but I didn’t get to take it that far.
Considering the Giant Defy Advanced 1 – not tried yet.

My intention would be to upgrade the wheels to Mavic Ksyrium Elite S as I understand the included wheels in this price bracket aren’t that great and both LBS offered a deal to do it with the bike purchase.

However I’m now wondering whether Ti should be the way forward. I haven’t tried one so I’m not sure how they compare comfort wise. Reading the posts it sounds like there is not much in it weight wise and I’m thinking the additional robustness of Ti would be good as I’d like this bike to last me.

I’m not out to win any races or even compete. I just want to get futher with greater ease (without my car 🙂 ).

So now over to you more experienced bikers. I’ve got £2k to spend. What are you thoughts on the following given my brief above:

Ti vs carbon
Specific models for comfort
Wheels – would they really make that much difference?

btw I’m 6’2″ and weight 187lbs.

Thanks in advance.

According to my family and
According to my family and friends, I evidently have a fixation for carbon. It is, of course, completely unfounded.
😉

Carbon any day!
Carbon any day! 😀

Noelieboy,
If not decided
For
Noelieboy,
If not decided
For comfort Titanium over carbon, titanium flexes well, so it can be a better shock absorber than carbon fiber. Titaniums wins

For durability, carbon is still not a good material for self-supported bicycle touring because of the different types of stresses on a loaded bike, according to deceased bicycle mechanic and bicycling website writer Sheldon Brown. Titanium is durable and maintains its shape well, but if damaged, it can be expensive and difficult to repair. A draw but for racing carbon.

Weight, Because of construction techniques, such a titanium bike might be lighter, but not because of changes in titanium’s weight. A poorly constructed carbon fiber bike could be heavier than a well constructed titanium bike. A draw but carbon is mostly lighter.

References
• Smart Cycles: Frame Materials
• Sheldon Brown: Frame Materials for the Touring Cyclist
• REI: Understanding Bike Frame Materials
• The CARE Exchange: Material Assets
• Livestrong

On your chooses,

The Wilier Izoad XP (Looks, handling and comfort) but I do pass a lot of rider on them when raceing ,over the Roubaix (Quality frame, good kit not for every one )

Sorry to chuck a sapeer in the works but try these 5

1.Bianchi Sempre 2012( A Wonderfully poised frame with classy kit)

2.Felt AR5 2012 (The Felt rides very well, though its a stiff bike frame)

3.Trek Madone 3.5 (Wonderful ride, great value)

4.Focus Izalco Pro 3.0 (A great all-rounder)

5.Eddy merkx – emx 1 (Frantically fast and efficient race bike and smoth ride)

these are all carbon

Ti bikes In your price range you are going to struggle to find ti is there is one recommend

Genesis Equilibrium Ti (A good bike but not live up to its steel framed siblings)

At the end of the day the it is your chooses not other peoples

i currently ride a emx-1 and when descending it is stable and fast but long wateing time for parts.

@Noelieboy, interested to
@Noelieboy, interested to know what your decision was in the end…?

If you still haven’t decided, a couple of further thoughts, to try to persuade you down the Ti route!

Regarding weight, +1 to what putmebackonmybike said, I got the scales out for the first time the other day and the complete weight of my Ti bike was 7.75 kg (it’s a large frame, I’m 6’2), so Ti not necessarily heavier than carbon..

I took it on a 10 mile TT last week and posted a 25.57, over rough roads, no tri bars, just standard set up, trying to keep on the drops for as long as possible.. Quicker than the various carbon TT rigs on the evening and I suspect I was a lot more comfortable! (obviously not a scientific comparison between frame materials)

I’d say it’s as close to a fast all-rounder you can get, intended use of course is sportives, I don’t feel beaten up after 4 hours and I’m sure I’m no slower than most riders on carbon.

So unless you’re a seriously competitive racer, I do think you can get one bike to do it all if you go down the Ti route. worse case scenario is you end up with two wheelsets but using a single frame, perhaps light alu clinchers for sportive and swap them out for deeper carbon rims for racing. Still avoiding n+1, technically at least!

Chorlton Velo – best club in
Chorlton Velo – best club in town! 😀

PM me if you fancy coming out with us.