The prototype carbon/titanium cross bike is finally done. I have been riding it about a week now and what a fun ride it is. I live on a dirt road with several trails surrounding my house, asphalt grass and single track all within 1/4 mile. It makes for some fun cross courses, I have been building some natural barriers and cleaning single track. The main purpose of building this bike was to test and try out mold #1 for carbon fiber. It came out much better than I could have ever hoped for, I also thought it would be a good opportunity to build a cross bike that I have desperately wanted, and to use some of the spare parts laying around the shop. I have always been a fan of titanium cross rides, and with all the carbon cross bikes currently coming onto the market, I thought it might be fun to build something that would be light, strong, and custom. I do not know how I feel about a cross bike built entirely out of carbon fiber, I think I would eventually want to try and bunny hop a 40cm barrier and fail miserably, but i would still try. The result would be a damaged down tube, but not with titanium. I think this bike will hit the nail on the head, best of both worlds carbon in the cockpit and titanium in the chassis. I was really impressed with the ride, comfortable, stable and responsive. It is significantly stiffer and quicker than my previous steel bike while on par with comfort.
In the bottom two photos you can see that it is a tube to tube lug. Precisely mitered, bonded together, then hand wrapped and compression molded while being curred at a specific temperature. The most difficult part of the process is orienting the fiber direction for optimal strength and ride characteristics. More on that later, and hopefully some nicer photo's as soon as I can clean it up and stop riding it long enough for my wife to snap some quality shot's.
