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Moots and Titanium Bicycles
By spokesman | May 16, 2010
At the National Handmade Bicycle Show held in Richmond a few ago, I had the opportunity to attend a seminar on titanium bicycles given by Moots Bicycles. Moots is a Steamboat Springs, Colorado based bicycle company that specializes in titanium bicycles. Titanium is approximately 56% of the density of most steel/nickel alloys. It is the 9th most abundant element in the earth’s crust and the fourth most abundant metallic element. So if it is light, strong and abundant, why aren’t there more titanium bikes and why are they expensive? There are several reasons. Although titanium is abundant in nature, it is expensive to recover. Titanium is also complex to weld compared to steel. Titanium must be welded in an oxygen free environment. If oxygen is present during the welding process, chemical reactions will result in a contaminated weld. The Moots representative explained the welding process in detail. The joint to be welded is surrounded by a stream of Argon, an inert gas, that is continuously blown on the weld area. This is complex, expensive and requires a higher skill level than welding steel frames. As a result it is difficult to mass produce titanium bikes. They will never be manufactured in large quantities like steel and aluminum bikes. The silver color of the Moots bikes is the natural color of titanium - their frames are not painted, just polished and clear coated. Titanium can be polished so that it looks like stainless steel, but typically most titanium frames have a matte finish.
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Topics: Bicycles |