[mattscq]

Theoretically because you can print scaffolds and armatures within tunes you could make thinner, lighter, and stronger parts. If you’ve ever 3d printed anything though, it takes forever. It’s more like a dot matrix printer than a laserjet or offset press. There may be quicker industrial scale printers but I can’t imagine it being quicker than extruding a tube.

I’ve seen a lot of custom builders 3d print the hard parts i.e. the junctions at bottom brackets, disc drop out mounts, seat tube clusters etc. they say it’s higher tech and allows for higher precision which is both true but it also struck me as kind of cheating as it takes the craft out of it. At that point you’re just straight cutting tubes and welding them.

I do wonder if a fully titanium frame would ride differently though or hold up differently. I don’t doubt they are strong enough but just as you can do a million things to steel to turn it from building columns to samurai swords, surely a drawn tube must behave differently even if it’s the same alloy?