Has anyone directly compared Habanero Ti vs TST/Mongoose Ti?

[Rniak?Away With]

Since people here have mentioned both of the above names in
regards to quality, "budget", pre-fab Ti frames, does
anyone know of any direct comparison tests of these
respective frames?

Things to look at: (Objective) Bb & rear triangle stiffness,
handling/responsiveness, longterm durability/fatigue
resistance, weld quality... (Subjective) Comfort?

Regards,

Rick

 

[Ken]

"David L. Johnson" <[email protected]> wrote in
news[email protected]:
> For one thing, I know of no longterm durability
> comparisons among any collection of bikes,

Most new bikes (except for a few ultralight racing bikes)
will last your lifetime, unless you crash it. A hard crash
can destroy any bike. If you're the type who crashes a lot,
buy a cheap bike.

 

[Eflayer2]

I own a TST. It is very nicely made and I have no complaints
about the quality. I actually like this bike a lot. One
thing to consider and double check is that some have said
the TST was made to accept a fork with slightly shorter
blades than are generally available today. I have a Kestrel
carbon fork with alloy steerer installed and the length of
the blades make it look as though the bike has a slightly
up-sloping top tube. I can't feel this in any detrimental
way in the handling, but am a club rider at normal speeds.
If I had it to do over again, I would let Mark Hickey design
and build me a custom Habanero and get exactly what I wanted
at his reasonable price.

[email protected] (rniak?away with [email protected]) wrote in
message
news:<[email protected]>...
> Since people here have mentioned both of the above names
> in regards to quality, "budget", pre-fab Ti frames, does
> anyone know of any direct comparison tests of these
> respective frames?
>
> Things to look at: (Objective) Bb & rear triangle
> stiffness, handling/responsiveness, longterm
> durability/fatigue resistance, weld quality...
> (Subjective) Comfort?
>
> Regards,
>
> Rick

 

[Jay Beattie]

"David L. Johnson" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news[email protected]...
> On Sat, 05 Jun 2004 02:53:19 +0000, Ken wrote:
>
> > Most new bikes (except for a few ultralight racing
> > bikes)
will last your
> > lifetime, unless you crash it. A hard crash can
> > destroy any
bike. If you're
> > the type who crashes a lot, buy a cheap bike.
>
> Well, I have had one fail through a fatigue crack,
> and many
others have as
> well. But who knows whether that was an anomaly from a bad
weld, or
> something common to that particular bike? I imagine
> there is
enough
> inconsistency in welds to cause most failures. In
> that regard,
the welds
> on my Habanero are very smooth.

I cracked three or four steel frames and a couple of poorly
designed aluminum frames (the now defunct Cannondale 2.8
with the cantilever drop-outs). This is why I like those
life time warranties. But I also think that Mark sells a
good bike, although he is a right-wing radical party doll.
Mark, are you going to the funeral? I hear that Al Franken
is going to deliver the dissenting eulogy. -- Jay Beattie.