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Eurobike 2017: The best titanium bikes

Starring Van Nicholas, Litespeed, Dedacciai, Moots and more

Eurobike has been dominated by carbon fibre frames for years but plenty of other materials have a strong presence, including titanium which has a loyal fanbase. Here are 13 ti bikes that caught our eye…

Eurobike 2017 Litspeed Cherohala - 1.jpg

Litespeed, which makes its bikes exclusively in the USA, will be adding a new disc brake model shortly in the shape of the Cherohala SE.

Eurobike 2017 Litspeed Cherohala - 3.jpg

It’s made to an endurance geometry from 3AL-2.5V titanium and will take tyres up to 30mm wide. 

Eurobike 2017 Litspeed T1SL - 1.jpg

The T1SL road bike is made from a combination of 3Al/2.5V and 6Al/4V titanium.

Eurobike 2017 Litspeed T1SL - 9.jpg

Litespeed boasts that it’s the lightest ti frame on the market: 1,000g for the rim brake version, 1,175g for the disc brake version.

Eurobike 2017 Vamoots Disc RSL - 1.jpg

Moots is another US brand. The Vamoots Disc RSL is designed as a lightweight and stiff road bike. The frame comes with a 142 x 12mm thru axle dropout and you get a 44mm head tube for strength and stiffness up front.

Eurobike 2017 Hilite Gravel - 1.jpg

The s Gravel (yes, s Gravel) from Swiss brand Hilite has a 142 x 12mm thru axle dropout too. It can take 700C wheels with 32mm cyclocross tyres or 650b wheels with mountain bike tyres up to 47mm in width. The frame has eyelets for mudguards and a rack.

Eurobike 2017 Falkenjagd Aristos - 1.jpg

Germany’s Falkenjagd makes its frames exclusively from titanium. The Aristos Cyclocross Gravelracer is designed to be ridden both on and off-road. It’s built up here with SRAM Force 1x shifters and rear derailleur with all of those orange components coming from Tune.

Eurobike 2017 Rabbit - 1.jpg

Rabbit Cycles is another German brand. This is the Road Classic in a Shimano Dura-Ace build with a leather saddle and bar tape.

Eurobike 2017 Rabbit 2 - 1.jpg

And this is the Road Disc with Bike Ahead’s six spoke biturboRoad wheels.

Eurobike 2017 Deda Titanio 25  - 2.jpg

Dedacciai’s Titanio 25 comes with external cable routing, a tapered head tube (1 1/8in to 1 1/2in), and a threaded bottom bracket. The claimed frame weight (size M) is 1,450g.Van Nicholas Yukon Disc_-7.jpg

Van Nicholas has just revealed its new Yukon Disc, an all-road model with space for 35mm tyres and a full complement of rack and mudguard mounts. A rim version has been in the Van Nicholas range for years.

Van Nicholas Yukon Disc_-14.jpg

Find out more about the Van Nicholas Yukon Disc here.

 Van Nicholas Skeiron Disc_.jpg

Here's Van Nicholas' Skeiron Disc which won a Eurobike 2017 Gold Award in the Racing Bikes category.

Eurobike 2017 Passoni - 1.jpg

Passoni's Top Evolution is a classic-looking road bike with mostly 3Al/2.5V titanium tubes, although 6Al/4V is used for the head tube, bottom bracket shell and dropouts.

Eurobike 2017 Passoni - 2.jpg

The graphics are applied directly to the tube by sandblast.

Eurobike 2017 titanium tandem - 1.jpg

Santana is a Californian tandem specialist and this is the Beyond, made from a combination of titanium and Kevlar-reinforced carbon tubing that's made in-house.

Eurobike 2017 Nevi Spinas - 1.jpg

Nevi's Spinas is titanium right down to the fork – 3Al-2.5V except for the 6Al-4V deep section down tube, bottom bracket shell and dropouts.

Mat has been in cycling media since 1996, on titles including BikeRadar, Total Bike, Total Mountain Bike, What Mountain Bike and Mountain Biking UK, and he has been editor of 220 Triathlon and Cycling Plus. Mat has been road.cc technical editor for over a decade, testing bikes, fettling the latest kit, and trying out the most up-to-the-minute clothing. He has won his category in Ironman UK 70.3 and finished on the podium in both marathons he has run. Mat is a Cambridge graduate who did a post-grad in magazine journalism, and he is a winner of the Cycling Media Award for Specialist Online Writer. Now over 50, he's riding road and gravel bikes most days for fun and fitness rather than training for competitions.

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24 comments

Avatar
srchar | 6 years ago
0 likes

I used to have a Van Nicholas Ventus. It looked lovely, but I needed something with mudguard clearance for winter. So, I swapped all the components onto a Kinesis T3, an aluminium frame that cost about 20% of the price of the VN.

The T3 is nicer to ride. It's comfier and just as fast, although handles a little more slowly.

Now, about that magical Ti ride quality...

Avatar
Pigpen | 6 years ago
0 likes

I like it the look of the Reilly 325ti any one seen one  ??

Avatar
WashoutWheeler | 7 years ago
0 likes

These would all have to be something very special indeed, in order that they can offer, value, comfort, and performance over and above that which my Dolan Ti ADX does! Best frame I have ever ridden.

Avatar
Sniffer | 7 years ago
0 likes

I suppose I put less store in why companies give warranties.  They are marketing as much as anything else. 

Enjoy your search for the bike that fits your dreams.  It is not for me to challenge your assumptions on what will make you happy with a bike,

Avatar
cyclisto | 7 years ago
0 likes

@sniffer as I have mentioned before but everybody chose to overpass, many manufacturers who give lifetime warranty to metal frames will not give a lifetime warranty to CF frames, often at bikes with the same purpose. I don't really claim this, it is the manufacturers themselves who tell us.

Avatar
CXR94Di2 | 7 years ago
5 likes

Trigger had the same sweeping brush for 20 years.

It had 5 new handles and 12 new brushes  4

Avatar
cyclisto | 7 years ago
0 likes

I did hundreds of thousands of miles on a car. Eventually the car was written when a lorry rear ended it when parked, but the engine was as new. I am not sure why engine reliability would ever be a part of the equation when buying a car, especially when I have such reliable and unbiased statistics from my own experience described above.

Avatar
Sniffer replied to cyclisto | 7 years ago
0 likes

cyclisto wrote:

I did hundreds of thousands of miles on a car. Eventually the car was written when a lorry rear ended it when parked, but the engine was as new. I am not sure why engine reliability would ever be a part of the equation when buying a car, especially when I have such reliable and unbiased statistics from my own experience described above.

Very true, but there is no evidence in your posts to support your argument that CF forks won't last a very long time.

Avatar
drosco replied to cyclisto | 7 years ago
2 likes

cyclisto wrote:

I did hundreds of thousands of miles on a car. Eventually the car was written when a lorry rear ended it when parked, but the engine was as new. I am not sure why engine reliability would ever be a part of the equation when buying a car, especially when I have such reliable and unbiased statistics from my own experience described above.

 

I've met plenty of people who've had a car with engine trouble, but I've never yet met a person who's had an issue with a carbon fork deteriorating over time. It just doesn't happen.

 

Avatar
drosco | 7 years ago
0 likes

I did countless thousands of miles on an alloy bike with a carbon fork. Eventually the frame was written of in a crash, but the fork was as new. I'm not sure why having a carbon fork would ever be part of the equation when buying a bike?

Avatar
cyclisto | 7 years ago
0 likes

If CF is as strong as Ti then simply go buy a CF frame that will be lighter, cheaper and more laterally stiff/vertically compliant. And the manufacturers would stop giving 5year warranties to CF frames and keep the lifetime warranty that applies to other frame materials. But as I said, if.

Avatar
cyclisto | 7 years ago
0 likes

As much as I like Ti, if it is combined with a CF fork it won't really appeal to me as a lifetime bicycle.

Avatar
CXR94Di2 replied to cyclisto | 7 years ago
3 likes
cyclisto wrote:

As much as I like Ti, if it is combined with a CF fork it won't really appeal to me as a lifetime bicycle.

Carbon forks are very robust, in a accident a ti forks could suffer just as much. Forks can be exchanged

Avatar
BehindTheBikesheds replied to cyclisto | 7 years ago
2 likes

cyclisto wrote:

As much as I like Ti, if it is combined with a CF fork it won't really appeal to me as a lifetime bicycle.

My Time composite forks from my 1990791 team rep Gitane are still going strong, Mizuno 1" full carbon forks on my Raleigh titanium are amazing, the CF forks on my Spesh Globe pro have being involved in a hit and run and 2 other incodents were I was injured due to other pareties fault and they are still solid as anything,.I've also used the bike to carry loads up to 90kg on top of my 100kg+  without issue (the steerer is alu too) honestly your statement doesn't make much logical sense.

Avatar
macrophotofly | 7 years ago
0 likes

Not convinced the latest Shimano or Campagnola Cranks look very good on any Ti frames.

The old 9000 D-A crank used to look good on a Ti frame. The Sram Red and Force cranks seem to look better too (not any shown above).

Avatar
CXR94Di2 | 7 years ago
0 likes

Kinesis Tripster V2 takes 45mm tyres, disc brakes, mudguards, pannier racks, 3 bottles, Di2 internal ready and threaded bottom bracket

What else would you need?

Avatar
Strathbean | 7 years ago
4 likes

.

Avatar
Mat Brett replied to Strathbean | 7 years ago
1 like

Strathbean wrote:

Nevi spinas is my dream bike, but they need to put a threaded bb in it first, pressfit is a dealbreaker on a £5k frame that I'd expect to outlast me.

According to the Nevi website, it's a threaded (BSA) bottom bracket.

http://www.nevi.it/p/spinas

Avatar
Strathbean replied to Mat Brett | 7 years ago
0 likes

Mat Brett wrote:

Strathbean wrote:

Nevi spinas is my dream bike, but they need to put a threaded bb in it first, pressfit is a dealbreaker on a £5k frame that I'd expect to outlast me.

According to the Nevi website, it's a threaded (BSA) bottom bracket.

http://www.nevi.it/p/spinas

Aha, thanks Mat, sorry Nevi! I was getting it mixed up with the lynskey r460. The dream lives on haha

Avatar
Mconsu replied to Mat Brett | 7 years ago
0 likes

Mat Brett]</p>

<p>[quote=Strathbean wrote:

Nevi spinas is my dream bike, but they need to put a threaded bb in it first, pressfit is a dealbreaker on a £5k frame that I'd expect to outlast me.

According to the Nevi website, it's a threaded (BSA) bottom bracket.

http://www.nevi.it/p/spinas

[/quote=]

Nevi can put Pressfit but the company doesn't recommed it

 

Avatar
ianguignet | 7 years ago
1 like

that Passoni though....

Avatar
RobD replied to ianguignet | 7 years ago
0 likes

ianguignet wrote:

that Passoni though....

I can't decide between that and the Van Nicholas, both look very good

Avatar
nortonpdj replied to RobD | 7 years ago
0 likes

RobD wrote:

ianguignet wrote:

that Passoni though....

I can't decide between that and the Van Nicholas, both look very good

 

I'd happily settle for either of those!

Avatar
georgee replied to nortonpdj | 7 years ago
1 like

nortonpdj wrote:

RobD wrote:

ianguignet wrote:

that Passoni though....

I can't decide between that and the Van Nicholas, both look very good

 

I'd happily settle for either of those!

 

Fugly saddle and leaving it on a show stand in the inner ring with campag on it.  I think anyone who's gone to specsavers would take the VN any day of the week.

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