>
>When Ken mentioned printing with titanium I wasn't sure anyone was
>printing with titanium that so decided to check. Google showed there
>are many and so I decided to use this site as an illustration of the
>work. Chris Trask (and probably others here) will find this very
>interesting.
>
><http://www.gizmag.com/3d-printed-titanium-bicycle-frame/30760/>
>
Way back in the 1974, I went shopping for my very first French road bike.
I had lived in France from 1960 to 1963 (DeGaulle was president, the Berlin
Wall went up, John Glenn orbited the Earth, there was the Cuban Missile Crisis,
and France had both the Algerian Uprising and the OAS to contend with) and had
a typical American cast iron kid's bike, a Huffy Convertible. It was
humiliating to compare that with a typical French kid's bike. So, I came away
from that experience with an insatiable desire to own one of my own.
I thought I had saved up enough money to buy a French road bike, but I was
blown away by the price tags on even a low-end Peugeot. A bike shop in
Carlisle, PA came to my rescue with a Motobecane Grand Tour fitted to my liking
for just $375. I still have it, though it has gone through some changes over
the years as my experience and taste has improved. It turns out to have been a
better choice as the Motobecanes are a bit lighter and have a slightly longer
wheelbase than a comparable Peugeot.
But back then, there was a lot of experimentation taking place with
various metals for bike frames. Motobecane was using 1020 (high carbon steel)
on the mid-range and higher models, while Peugeot was into Reynolds 531. And
later there was Vitus tubing, which was more of a tapering along the inside to
reduce weight.
Then comes along Fuji. They introduced their titanium alloy frame, and
the frameset alone cost an astounding $1,200.00! That's about $5,000 in
today's money, and the current carbon fibre frames and wheel rims are costing
that much and more. Chromoloy (a Chromium and Molybdinum alloy steel)
dominated for a long time for light weight frames, and there have been a few
frames made with 6061-T6 aluminum.
I may have satisfied my desire for owning French road bikes, but the jury
seems to be hung on this issue.
Chris the Moto(bécane)maniac
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