The Titanium Development Association calls titanium "the
material of choice," and there are a lot of people in the bike
industry who would agree. This, the fourth part of our
metallurgy series, is about that mysterious and expensive metal,
titanium. Its reputation within the industry is excellent: light
weight, super strength and fatigue life, a magical ride ... and
a heavy price tag, to boot. So let's find out what the physical
characteristics are that give titanium such an enviable
reputation. Titanium is not as rare as you might guess - it's
actually the fourth most abundant metallic element in the earth,
after aluminum, magnesium and iron. In fact, there's a lot more
titanium in the earth's crust than there is chromium or
molybdenum, two of the essential ingredients that accompany the
iron used for steel bike tubing. As we learned last time,
density is the giant feather in the property cap for aluminum.
This is an area where titanium also shines, and although its
density is almost double that of aluminum,