Titanium frames may not be as fashionable as they once were, but as Max Korus proved at the Redlands Classic, they are still able to run at the front.
How is it that the material that was once all the rage so quickly lost its status as a premier frame material? According to Litespeed engineer Brad DeVaney, ‘Titanium builders lost focus around 2001. We didn’t consider the carbon bikes as competition. We sat and looked at each other for too long and were too slow to go to a more contemporary design. The titanium brands were just watching each other. Litespeed was responding to Seven, and they were responding to Moots, and so on. In the meantime, Cervelo brought their carbon bike to market, then Specialized, and, of course, we can see where things ended up. I think Litespeed was the first titanium company to acknowledge that we were building bikes 15 years old.’