Searching through my old books, found a picture of a Follis Titan. The caption of this one clearly says that it is made by Teledyne, but I had remembered at the time seeing another picture of a Follis Ti bike, and never knew until much later that it was a Titan. BTW, does anyone know who made the Motobecane Ti bike that TdF winner Luis Ocana rode for several years, including at the time of his famous and severe crash on an early 70's TdF mountain stage while pursuing Merckx in a downpour? I have never established whether someone besides Teledyne and Speedwell made Ti bikes in the early 70's, or if all the others were rebadged examples of one of these two marques. Also, was Speedwell the first Ti bike ever made? I know that the French were actually making aluminum bikes in the 30's, but I have the idea that titanium, due to the difficulty and expense of producing and working with it, was a laboratory curiousity until after WWII, and titanium tubing may have only begun to be produced in any quantity during the American space program launched by Kennedy in the early 60's. Does anyone know of much earlier titanium bikes?
Regards,
Jerry Moos
Diane Feldman wrote:
> Jerry,
> What I remember about people equipping Titans in the early 70's:
> Lots of riders choosing Dura-Ace groups, perhaps taking a cue from the
> oversize cable clips made by Shimano, and that many of the frames were sold
> with a Dura-Ace first-generation steel headset, lots riding with Campy NR,
> of course, and many of us were amused by pictures in Velonews of Jonathan
> Boyer in his ACBB colors with a French-equipped, Peugeot-decalled Titan!
> Suntour Superbe would be inauthentically late, Cyclone derailleurs, however,
> would be a match. So would HiE hubs, maybe a Nyflor headset, any early Phil
> equipment (3-piece hubs) Stronglight 93 cranks, and the hubs would be laced
> into Super Champion or Martano rims; this was what was popular in SoCal,
> between 1973 and 76. The last Titans that were sold wore Follis decals as
> the owner of Linder-Euro Imports, the Follis wholesaler, bought a bunch of
> frames that Teledyne was closing out and stuck some cheap vinyl lettering on
> them. There were also a few which were painted a butt-ugly orange or sky
> blue, painted ti two decades before Litespeed or Serotta!
> David Feldman
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Jerry & Liz Moos" <moos@penn.com>
> To: <Ebbikes@aol.com>
> Cc: <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
> Sent: Thursday, January 25, 2001 5:48 PM
> Subject: [CR]Re: Teledyne Titan
>
> > Thanks, I guess the Superbes could still be "period" since Titans, as I
> > recall, were mostly sold as framesets, and the last frames, if they set
> > in shop inventory a year or so and maybe in the buyer's garage a similar
> > time, could have been originally built up with Superbe. The Avocet
> > crank may be stretching the point a bit though. Anyone know when the
> > Phil Wood platform pedals were made? I have another pair of pedals
> > which I think is definitely period as I think I saw them as well at the
> > 1974 Worlds (maybe even on a Teledyne) - the infamous Cinelli "death
> > pedals". However, I'm not quite brave (or foolish) enough to actually
> > ride these on the road.
> >
> > Regards,
> >
> > Jerry Moos
> >
> > Ebbikes@aol.com wrote:
> >
> > > Teledyne was all done making frames by 1977, because I was able to
> > > buy from
> > > them one of their last titanium BB spindles that year. Probably they
> > > quit
> > > making them in 1976.
> > >
> > > Bob Freeman