Salsa fargo or Surly ecr frame

[niels]

Hi everyone,

Looking to get a frame similar to the Salsa Fargo or the Surly ECR, in steel or titanium. Any recommendations?

Thanks.

[Carbon_Dude]

Sorry, nobody here cares about aluminum or titanium frames .

[Izzy]

Lol. Ah come on now, we're not elitists. I'd love to see some nice chinese titanium/steel builds. It's just they aren't as popular as carbon so nobody really knows a whole lot about them.

Niels, if you posted some of the frames you're considering, then it'd help us help you choose. I haven't even really looked into them yet, but I imagine you can get a really nice Chinese steel frame for pretty darn cheap.

[Sitar_Ned]

Maybe I'm mistaken but isn't to where you can order a Chinese titanium frame completely custom made? And for a pretty low price, too. So you could literally just send the company the Salsa or Surly frame dimensions.. Anybody know what I'm talking about, or I just dreamed all this up?

[Carbon_Dude]

You are not dreaming, I saw the same thing posted on MTBR.com about 5-6 months ago.  The OP said he supplied the frame geometry and the ChiTanium (TM) vendor welded up the frame to his specs.  There was a new thread created on MTBR for Chinese Ti or Chi-Ti (TM), you should go check that out.

S/N should we think about adding a ChiTanium (TM) forum?

[niels]

I checked out the MTBR website and it was exactly what I was looking for.

Thanks guys.

[Dustin_mud]

That's cool info, never knew they made titanium frames. Learn something new everyday.

[Carbon_Dude]

Here are a couple threads from MTBR geared toward Chinese Titanium.

http://forums.mtbr.com/29er-bikes/chinese-titanium-frames-direct-853056.html

http://forums.mtbr.com/29er-bikes/chinese-titanium-29ers-843599.html

[Sitar_Ned]

You are not dreaming, I saw the same thing posted on MTBR.com about 5-6 months ago.  The OP said he supplied the frame geometry and the ChiTanium (TM) vendor welded up the frame to his specs.  There was a new thread created on MTBR for Chinese Ti or Chi-Ti (TM), you should go check that out.

S/N should we think about adding a ChiTanium (TM) forum?

We def could. Although, in six months of Chinertown, this is the first time they've come up. Also, the MTBR ChiTanium threads aren't very popular either it seems. BUT.. ChiTanium is such a cool word that we almost have to add it 

[cmh]

... ChiTanium is such a cool word that we almost have to add it 

Totally agreed.

I think I have one of the earliest ChiTanium frames - a 2002 Airborne Zeppelin. Not direct sourced or custom, but one of the first (that I know of) companies to offer high quality Chinese-made frames. (using Russian titanium IIRC) Still have it, it's still gorgeous, and I'll probably never get rid of it. I'll tell ya, it's a really, really nicely made frames and the welds are beautiful. I could totally see the desire for a full custom ChiTanium frame.

[Sitar_Ned]

You know, I've never ridden titanium before but have always wanted one,  and eventually would love to compare it to the ride of carbon. 

[Dustin_mud]

Salsa had a demo day at my local trails sat, got to ride there Titanium 29er. I yet to have the chance to ride a carbon but I can tell you it was night and day between my steel Jamis. Lol

[Carbon_Dude]

If I were in the market for a Chitanium™ frame, I would want the following features:

Tapered Head Tube
BSA (threadeed) Bottom Bracket
Rear Caliper Mount on Frame
142x12 Thru Axle
Good cable routing
Geometry similar to a known brand

I found one on Alibaba that comes close:
http://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/Titanium-Bike-Frame-MTB-29-Tapered_1697900383.html

There are many other Chitanium™ vendors there, you would just need to find one that has something close to what you want and go from there.

[seat_boy]

I thought seriously about a Chinese Ti frame. You can get a custom frame shipped to your door for ~$1000. That's not much more than a Karate Monkey frameset goes for these days. I've been too chicken/cheap to pull the trigger, though.

Some great reading is here:
http://www.spanner.org.uk/

I looked at a few companies when I was thinking about a 29+ frame with sliding dropouts and maybe a 44mm headtube:

Walty seemed to run $700, custom options included, and $135 shipping to the US.

XACD started at $600, but options and shipping quickly ran than up to $1000+

Titanproducts was $850 for the frame and around $150 for shipping.

Hmm, maybe I need to pull this together into another blog post.

[Joelk]

I would love to try a Chitanium 29+ but am afraid to be the first to try to explain 29+ to them.