Teledyne Titan Classic Road Bike 1974

The bicycle has always been a playground for mechanical innovations and future materials. The automobile, the motorcycle and even the aeroplane owe much of their early evolution to the bicycle. In the second half of the 20th century the direction of technical trickle down changed and other industries contributed to the further development of bicycles.
One of the new materials which found their way into component production and frame building was Titanium. A metal which was incredibly strong, had great suspension characteristics through its ductility and at the same time was of a lightness which was closer to aluminium than steel.

Around 1970 German frame builder Fritz Fleck started experimenting with Titanium and by 1972 an olympic gold medal was won on one of his frames. This was also the year that the British company Speedwell started to produce their first titanium frame prototypes and in 1973 famously Luis Ocaña rode one of their frames up the mountains in the Tour de France. Also in 1973 Campagnolo introduced their Super Record groupset, which made excessive use of titanium. And, on the other side of the big pond, American Company Teledyne started with the first serial production of a titanium bike: the Teledyne Titan.

Teledyne was a company with loads of experience in high end metal processing to since they made parts for aircrafts and spacecrafts.
Their Titan model shows many details which were a bit ahead of their time like oversized tubing, a bi-laminated seatlug to bring in the seat stays a bit lower and thus cut the rear triangle shorter or semi-horizontal dropouts. At the same time they oddly narrowed the down tube on two spots to make it usable with clamps for shifter cable routing and decided for a full titanium fork. Two design details which resulted in a soft front end and unseen looks.

Since 100% pure commercial titanium was the only material available in larger amounts, the whole frame became unusually flexible. Teledyne tried to counteract by reinforcing the tubes from the inside yet the flexibility was still very well noticeable and through the amplitude of movements, a few frames developed fatigue cracks, giving them somewhat of a mixed reputation.

Between 1973 and 1976, roughly 2000 of the Teledyne Titan frames were produced, which makes them a really limited edition and a collector's item. Though they are rather rare, they are still the ancestors of all modern serial produced titanium bikes and a hallmark of industrial bicycle design.
We are happy to be able to offer you one of those frames which is equipped with a full Campagnolo Nuovo-Record groupset and a Cinelli finishing kit.

This engineering masterpiece is fully serviced and waiting to be ridden or added to a collection.