SAGE Titanium Frames, Oregon

[Jeff N.]

Anyone own one of these or know much about them? -Jeff N.

[Clean39T]

Originally Posted by Jeff N.

Anyone own one of these or know much about them? -Jeff N.

One of our nicer shops in Portland is a dealer for them and they are based a few miles from where I live. I believe Lynskey does their production domestically. My understanding is they do the design, and Lynskey builds to their specs. I think they may have started with overseas production though, so if looking at used models from like 2014, it may not be from the US...I'm going off foggy memory though. This podcast is worth a listen: http://redkiteprayer.com/2017/04/paceline-podcast-65/ -- "Hottie interviews David Rosen of Sage Titanium who talks about his love for the material and what makes his line of bikes distinct."

[Imaking20]

Building on the above; Dave Rosen is pretty active in the PDX racing scene and their showroom has effectively been my team shop for the last couple of years. He's also a big guy himself - so he probably wouldn't be able to ride them himself if they were noodles. A couple years back, they put bikes under a few strong Cat 2/3 guys that really got my attention. There was a cat 3 sprinter on a tear one year aboard the Skyline - winning a bunch of times at our weekly flat circuit race as well as a super painful climbing circuit. I chatted with him about it after one race and he swore it was every bit as good as any bike he'd ridden - and he didn't think it gave up anything in a sprint.

The first 2 years of production were overseas before being moved to Tennessee. I would also assume Lynskey. I was in the Sage team tent at a CX race early this season getting up close before I ordered the R350 - and would feel pretty confident saying they came out of the same building.

I was actually looking pretty hard for a Skyline but:
A) I didn't want a threaded BB
B) I wanted more than 25mm of tire clearance
C) I couldn't see paying that much more for a frame that appeared to be an R350 with a flatter TT and removable cable stops

[David Tollefson]

There are ties to TiCycles Fabrication as well, though I'm not totally clear on what they are (my recollection is that the guy who did the assembling of the TiCycles bikes was the guy who was heading up Sage). I was at TiCycles talking with Dave Levy on a potential project and the first Sage was in the stand getting built up just next to me. They were indeed overseas production at the time.

[Jeff N.]

Thanks, guys. Was just curious. Further research revealed that the tubing is sourced overseas and welded by Lynskey, currently, but welding may soon be done in Oregon.

[Clancy]

Not sure what is better/worse.

Sourcing Ti overseas, welding in the US.
Overseas production.

My understanding is that there is quite a bit of difference between Asian titanium and US. A builder that welded for Seven for years before going out on her own told me that Asian ti is more difficult to weld. The differences in tubing may only effect welding and not the ride quality of the finished product.

Any ti welders out there?

[cadence90]

Interesting. I have always been under the impression that as long as a ti tube adhered to ASTM international specifications for any particular grade/alloy (i.e. Grade 5/Ti6Al-4V or Grade 9/Ti3Al-2.5V for bicycles) country of production was not really an issue.

Perhaps the Seven welder's "Asian ti" was of a different grade? I remember "Russian ti" being avoided because it was commonly Grade 1-4/"CP", and so much too ductile for good bicycle frames.
.
.

[Heisenberg]

Originally Posted by Clancy

Not sure what is better/worse.

Sourcing Ti overseas, welding in the US.
Overseas production.

My understanding is that there is quite a bit of difference between Asian titanium and US. A builder that welded for Seven for years before going out on her own told me that Asian ti is more difficult to weld. The differences in tubing may only effect welding and not the ride quality of the finished product.

Any ti welders out there?

No idea - but Baum (in Aus) buys American ti tubing, not Asian, and you could call them sticklers for detail.

[happycampyer]

oops... double post

[happycampyer]

My recollection is that it has to do with quality control more than anything—iirc, even in the US, not all sources are equal. I recall Jon or someone at Moots wrote a blog post a while back about the importance of the source of their titanium.

[bismo37]

Originally Posted by David Tollefson

There are ties to TiCycles Fabrication as well, though I'm not totally clear on what they are (my recollection is that the guy who did the assembling of the TiCycles bikes was the guy who was heading up Sage). I was at TiCycles talking with Dave Levy on a potential project and the first Sage was in the stand getting built up just next to me. They were indeed overseas production at the time.

I thought Ti Cycles / Dave Levy is involved with Ren Cycles, a different Ti bike company in PDX. I think Sage is a different thing in PDX.