Finishing Ti

[SadieKate]

So I cruised the Ti builders at the Handmade Bike Show this weekend. Bead blasting has got to be the ugliest finish I've seen in a long time. I don't like it on components, why would I want an entire road frame treated this way?

I'm completely ignorant when it comes to metal engineering. Bead plasting - shot peening - brush polishing. What are the pros and cons?

I have a '99 Litespeed Tuscany which is brush-polished. Aesthetically, I'd like the ti frame I replace it with to be half brush-polished and half painted. What would I actually be sacrificing or gaining?

Please keep your answers somewhere in the realm of an English major can understand. :rolleyes: Thank you all very much for your answers.

[vaxn8r]

Check the Serotta images. Check my link "Thing Two" below. I think the half polish half paint is a perfect option for ti. Nude ti no longer appeals to me (kind of like nude carbon). But with half polish you leave the drive train with a nearly indestructable finish.

[Serotta PETE]

Over the years, I have had a few Ti bikes....all but one were 1/2 paint & polished. From a personal point of view, I think it is very classic looking.

Only thing to remember is once ti is painted it is difficult/not recommended to be polished...

PETE

[SadieKate]

I'm really wondering about shot peening, etc., for the benefit of the metal and the welds. Back in 1999, I don't remember anyone talking about shot peening or bead blasting so, other than cost, is there an actual benefit? Are the builders just telling us how wonderful it is so they don't have to go to the expense of a brush finish? Does shot peening make a difference in a bike frame as opposed to some other object.

I like the brush finish of my Litepeed. I never polish it. I just wipe it down or maybe buff out a scratch on the bare ti.

[mosca]

Shot-peened and bead-blasted finishes look similar, but I believe the shot peening process actually affects the metal grain structure at the tube surface, whereas the bead blasting is basically cosmetic. AFAIK, Indy Fab is the only company using the shot peening process for ti, so you could contact them for more info. I think they have some metallurgy-related rationale for it, but no one else seems to think it's too important, so I say choose what looks good to you, it'll probably all work the same. Personally I dig the bead-blasted look, but what do I know? :D

[Keith A]

Here's a couple of wiki's for you on this subject...shot peening (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shot_peening) and bead blasting (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bead_blasting)

[Ti Designs]

Only thing to remember is once ti is painted it is difficult/not recommended to be polished...


Great, now you tell me!

[mjb266]

Email Steve Potts on this one Steve at stevepottsbicycles.com I sat in on his seminar and he explained it. The guy has forgot more than I know and will gladly explain

J

[Ti Designs]

Email Steve Potts on this one Steve at stevepottsbicycles.com I sat in on his seminar and he explained it. The guy has forgot more than I know


Are we talking about finishing Ti? I had no idea it was that complicated. Maybe I forgot more than I know??? Blasted - grey, brushed - kinda shiny, painted - pick a color, polished - like chrome, but nobody does it. There are pros and cons about the durability, but it's not rocket science...

[obtuse]

a real titanium bike is painted gewiss blue and has gay bars, pink shamal wheels, a titanium quill stem 8speed record and weighs 22 pounds.

obtuse

[SadieKate]

Email Steve Potts on this one Steve at stevepottsbicycles.com I sat in on his seminar and he explained it. The guy has forgot more than I know and will gladly explain

J
My short list at the moment is Steve Potts and Willits. I wish I had asked Steve about curved seat stays. I like the B2 rear triangle on the Willits.

[mjb266]

.

[mjb266]

From what I experienced you couldn't find a nicer, more open, more experienced builder than Steve Potts for ti. He has peers (Erikson) but no superiors. He was saying something about bead blasting stress relieving and surface hardening ti as opposed to sandblasting or polishing. I think I heard IF talking about the merits of bead blasting as well and it looks like all the eriksons have the same finish so there might be something to it.

[SadieKate]

IF says they shot peen and that it is not to be confused with bead blasting.

[SoCalSteve]

What does Moots do then?

Inquiring minds want to know...

[sailorboy]

check out the spectrum website on the merits of clearcoating a Ti frame. I recently added a clearcoated spectrum to my collection and it is by far the most beautiful finish I've ever seen on Ti.

[SadieKate]

I have clearcoated steel frames and they are no easier to keep clean than my natural brush finish Litespeed. They both have to be wiped down. They both need some kind of polish periodically. 8 years later the ti has no dings.

Of course, I never lean the frame of my bike against anything, but I've got a Litespeed mtn bike also and it takes a lot of abuse without being the worse for wear.

[Ti Designs]

Durability issues: Paint scratches and chips, a true polished titanium finish shows scratches, bead blasting or shot peening are durable (but also ugly in the eyes of some), brushed is durable and easy to refinish. The half paint frames make sense to me, people want some color, but why not leave the parts that get abused as the most durable finish? Painted chainstays get chipped, brushed or blasted ones don't.

I do a bit of titanium finish work. None of my bike work is on my site, but what is there shows a number of different surface options. It's ti-designs.com if you want to see what polished ti can look like...

[SadieKate]

I couldn't agree with you more. Fortunately, I like the look of a brush finish best and I want to leave the high abuse areas nekkid. I don't like the high polish. Roark had a lot of polished frames and I walked right past. Which is actually too bad now because I forgot they also do a brush finish and have a curve seat stay. I have a friend with one so I could always go inspect it up close.

Ti designs, I was cruising your website yesterday looking for bike stuff. What's the story? Do you work with specific builders and painters?

Truthfully, from an aesthetic view I like steel the best but I like the ride and maintenance issues (or lack of) of ti.

[Ti Designs]

I've worked on show bikes for IF and GT as well as a number of small parts that have shown up at the shows. Mostly I work with individuals who want something special that the frame makers don't offer. One of my customers has a Merlin NewsBoy which I refinished as a mirror polish with blasted pin stripes, a ti springer fork with polished titanium spring and a Wald copy front basket made from polished ti weld wire. The IF show bike in 2005 was an idea I had long ago for my next Seven, but Seven didn't want to make anything not offered in their catalog. IF has no such constraints, so when I offered to do some cutting and finishing on a set of lugs for their XS model they jumped at it. Looking back at that job and seeing some of the lug work that Peter Mooney brought with him to the show, I'm thinking of a second bike that goes way beyond simple heart shaped cut outs and masked curves. The next one will be a track bike - I have two pieces of 1/4" plate set aside for custom track dropouts with my signature concave curves carved all the way around them.

While it is what I own for a road bike, I've never asked Serotta about building a Ti Designs custom. I sell their bikes, I send frame designs to Kelly all the time, but I see them as functional bikes - the kind you ride. For that I would have to say that a brushed finish is as good as it gets, maybe half painted if you like a splash of color. Clear coats give a deep luster, but they also scratch and chip at the chainstays and dropouts. Brushed ti is really easy to keep looking good. The hardest customer on finishes I know owns a wedding band I made. His first wedding band was gold, but being a rock climber it didn't last a week on his finger. At first he wanted it annodized gold to match his first ring - that also didn't last a week. Now it's brushed, and while he can scratch it, he just goes over it with some #00 steel wool and it looks like new again.

[SadieKate]

Lynskey has a frame with bead blasted flames. Very cool, er, hot, whatever.