Readers with a long memory will recall from the 90s the name of DEAN, a brand that made some exquisite titanium frames. At the recent North American Handmade Bicycle Show the company was showing the Animas Cti, its latest offering.
The frame uses externally butted titanium tubes with a carbon-fibre over-wrap, an interesting approach that the company claims decreases the tube weight while increasing the stiffness, therefore making possible a stiffer frame for less weight than a conventional titanium frame.
Each Animas Cti is custom built to the customer’s specifications.
Also new and on show at NAHBS was a new Exogrid titanium/carbon fibre frame. Not unlike the tubes found on Titus Bicycles models, carbon and titanium are “fused” together in one seamless tube.
Sections of the titanium tube are laser cut and the resulting cutaways reinforced from the inside with carbon fibre to restore the tubular structure, reducing the weight while not adversely affecting the stiffness of the frame, and leaving a unique look.
