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:still has no bike: :(

Here's a question for you weight weenies: why use titanium when aluminum is so much lighter?

because Brits don't call it titanum?

Quote:

Originally Posted by footfootfoot (Post 804195)

I wonder if he has a sense of humor? Maybe I could get him to autograph an empty birdshot shell. That would be so fucking cool. The venue where he is appearing is owned by my friends, I'll see if he's staying for dinner. Who knows what may happen after a few bottles of wine?

It's hard to tell from your picture, Joe, but the best and cheapest place to lose weight is your self. Your bike will be ten pounds lighter when you are. ;)

Oh yea, the bike is a tool to that end. I got very lucky with this bike, it's a 1900.00-2,000.00 bike, I bought it on consignment from the local shop for 1100.00. Couldn't pass it up, it just happens to be all carbon and pretty light. As far as the rider the bike can loose 20-30 lbs.

Quote:

Originally Posted by HungLikeJesus (Post 804211)

Here's a question for you weight weenies: why use titanium when aluminum is so much lighter?

I really don't know, being a newb I've thought about this myself a few times in the last few months. I have come to the conclusion that you can make a pretty light alloy, and when you go down with the bike, because you will go down with the bike eventually....the frame will come out in better shape then a carbon or straight aluminum. I am prolly wrong, but it's what I've come up with on my own.

Quote:

Originally Posted by HungLikeJesus (Post 804211)

Here's a question for you weight weenies: why use titanium when aluminum is so much lighter?

Everything you never needed to know about frame materials. This is from the perspective of a touring cyclist, but that doesn't change the physics.

Steel vs Titanium
Look at the chart again. You'll see that identical steel vs titanium frames would be about equal in strength, but that the titanium frame would be about half the weight and half the stiffness.

Such a frame would likely have a whippy feel due to the reduced stiffness, especially in loaded touring applications. To compensate, builders of titanium frames use somewhat larger diameter tubes to bring the stiffness more into line with what riders like. This tends to increase the weight a bit, but by making the walls of the larger tubes a bit thinner, they can compensate to some extent, and come up with a frame that is still lighter than a normal steel frame.

Steel vs Aluminum
The situation with aluminum is even more pronounced. The "identical" aluminum frame would be 1/3 as stiff as steel, roughly half as strong, and 1/3 the weight. Such a frame would be quite unsatisfactory. That's why aluminum frames generally have noticeably larger tubing diameters and thicker-walled tubing. This generally results with frames of quite adequate stiffness, still lighter than comparable steel ones.