Last week after much deliberation I decided it was time to treat myself to a new bike. My 2016 CAADX is a good workhorse but i'm starting to feel its limitations and test riding a titanium Reilly Gradient a few times over the past months made me fall in love with Ti quite a lot. As such I put down a deposit for a Gradient frame and the only slight doubt in my mind is whether or not super magnesium is going to come down the track in 2019/2020 and offer a 50% weight reduction over ti and potential similar ride qualities and perhaps at a lower price point. i don't know if it will have the lovely zing that ti is famed for or if it will become a successful material for bikes or just a passing fad. Apparently a super magnesium framed bike was shown at NAHBS in March and is coming to market, so perhaps mass adoption will come in the next 6-18 months? Any views appreciated - I realise I could spend years waiting for super magnesium only for it to turn out to be a fad or just save a couple of hundred grams.
drwelby wrote:Like clockwork, magnesium makes a comeback every 10-15 years and then disappears after a year or two. I wouldn't bother waiting.
Sounds like my fitness :-] No time like the present - i've had a pretty unpleasant couple of years so feels like a new bike now rather than the possibility of a slightly better new bike, just maybe, in future is far more attractive :-)
The problem with Ti is that it doesn't really last longer than other materials, so its not a "lifetime" frame. What ever frame you buy will be "obsolete" before the frame wears out. That is the bike industry's obsolescence for ya. I see some nice Ti bikes on Craigs list, but I look at the components and the geometry and think no way. Everything on the bike would have to be updated and even then the geometry is all wrong. Modern brakes, hubs, wheels often can't be adapted anyway.
chas wrote:The problem with Ti is that it doesn't really last longer than other materials, so its not a "lifetime" frame. What ever frame you buy will be "obsolete" before the frame wears out. That is the bike industry's obsolescence for ya. I see some nice Ti bikes on Craigs list, but I look at the components and the geometry and think no way. Everything on the bike would have to be updated and even then the geometry is all wrong. Modern brakes, hubs, wheels often can't be adapted anyway.
Well, Ti is impervious to corrosion, so to me your first sentence doesn't make sense. As far as the second sentence, yeah, it's hard to keep up with the Joneses. But the same holds true for any frame material. Hub spacing changes, etc - wait until they put boost spacing on gravel bikes, then we'll all be obsolete. It's all part of a cycle (pun intended), and just about everything has been tried. Years from now, manufacturers will be introducing front shifting as revolutionary. Why is the geometry all wrong on older bikes? That does hold true for MTBs, but I don't think so for other kinds of riding. I certainly agree that there's planned obsolescence, and that's an ugly fact of capitalism. But I got probably twenty years of riding left in my life, and I'm sure I'll be able to service my Moots Routt YBB until I can no longer pedal.
And to respond to the OP, magnesium has been tried decades ago. What about scandium? And someone once made frames out of berrylium, which is explosive in a powder state. Let's not get started on bamboo.....
chas wrote:The problem with Ti is that it doesn't really last longer than other materials, so its not a "lifetime" frame. What ever frame you buy will be "obsolete" before the frame wears out. That is the bike industry's obsolescence for ya. I see some nice Ti bikes on Craigs list, but I look at the components and the geometry and think no way. Everything on the bike would have to be updated and even then the geometry is all wrong. Modern brakes, hubs, wheels often can't be adapted anyway.
My, now 23 year old, Moots Psychlo-X disagrees with you... In point of fact, I just had a new set of wheels built up for it with, gasp, rebuilt American Classic hubs. I have an Independent Fabrication fork standing by to take the place of the original Steelman and, until the brake makers stop making cantilevers; I don't foresee any component problems going forward... Oh, and that ghastly 68mm threaded BB shell; absolutely atrocious design.
