What’s on my mind lately. Trying to find out more about this metallurgical marvel.

From the aforementioned link: “It is a light, strong, lustrous, corrosion-resistant (including to sea water and chlorine) transition metal with a silver colour.” I can dig it.

Recently I picked up a new RSS feed and blog to read. It’s the well-written and well-thought-out blog of Rob Vandermark, the founder of Seven Cycles. Entitled 25Seven, it’s been illuminating. While Vandermark extols the virtues of titanium and enlightens readers with how Seven Gets Things Done, it’s also a unique inside look at how they approach business and how their methodology comes into play. Admittedly, I am impressed. Seven is certainly not a small one-person shop but it began with humble roots and their frames are ones that I’ve lusted after for years. Seeing many a sexy Seven at the ChiCrossCup races lately has rekindled that lust. However, I’ve been doing due diligence and researching what makes titanium this seemingly holy grail of bicycle frame raw materials.

If you know me, then you know I love steel. All of my bikes are steel. I enjoy the ride, the long-term comfort and the simplicity of it as an old school material that still enjoys the evolution of its properties when handled by some of the best framebuilders in the world.

However, ti has always intrigued me. I hear all of the benefits of steel are there with ti but mixed in with some of the better properties of aluminum (anti-rust and anti-corrosion). The fact that they look absolutely sexy when bead blasted and sans paint and look stealthy to boot are all excellent icing on the cake.

Maybe I’ve drunk the Kool-Aid but my curiosity is piqued for the ’09 season.