New Ti Custom Frame plus a Light Update!

I've finally taken the plunge.....into the world of Ti.

After daydreaming, deliberating, and dilly-dallying for over 6 months, and, after many conversations with an unnamed bike "insider," a good 1 hour conversation with Carl Strong(www.Strongracing.com) yesterday, and various e-mails and telephone calls over the last couple of weeks, I finally put down a deposit for a new titanium custom frame.

On road bikes, I've been through steel (old school Fuji, Bridgestone RB-1 out of Ishiwata, new school custom Strong out of Columbus Foco), aluminum (old school Cannondale), and carbon w/ aluminum lugs (new school Look KX Light), but I've never had or even ridden a Ti frame yet. So, I really had no choice but to give this "wonder" material a try. And with our salty air, Ti should be great with its superior corrosion resistance.

From what I've read, though, it seems Ti has a problem with stiffness, in other words, not enough it. So, I told Carl that I want my frame to be a "race" frame with the stiffness of Cannondale or of a frame made out of the new True Temper S-3 tubeset. We decided on a 38mm downtube (for bottom bracket stiffness), a 35mm toptube (for front end stiffness), a 32mm seattube (will fit a 27.2 seatpost), and standard 22mm chainstays and 19mm seatstays, all straight gauge 3/2.5 Ti. I still need to decide on whether I want the downtube to be bi-axial ovalized, whether I want s-bend seat and chainstays, and whether I want straight or tapered stays.

I'm also contemplating a thing not normally seen on a race frame, rear rack mounts. I'll need to think about this though...maybe I can also use this frame for some very light touring too.

Carl said he would probably get me a drawing this Friday. I'll update then.

LIGHT UPDATE: After a good full charge last night, I went out for a short interval session on Lagoon Drive this afternoon. I got to run my light for about 45 minutes in full darkness and let me tell you, this thing is a flame throwing BAZOOKA!!! I could kind of tell from the night before, but after tonight I'm sure of it - this thing is even BRIGHTER than car headlights!!! I had no problems running familiar roads and even at 40 kph, I couldn't "out run" the light and still had room to spare.

I'm soooo glad I didn't spend any more for a brand name light cause this thing is probably better than 95% of the stuff out there - I'd even put my light up against HID bike lights. If anything, the are in the SAME league! Anyone short on cash and considering night riding should definitely build themselves one of these. UNREAL!!!