26 Oct 2007

After a very long wait, today I went down to LA Designs to pick up the hopefully first of many of the new 2008 Tephra CTi’s. As a stock frame, these frames are normally brushed Titanium and clearcoated Unidirectional Carbon, but this client wanted the Team Orange, so who am I to refuse? (Especially when it looks this damn hot.)

So what’s the deal with the Tephra CTi? Well, basically we decided instead of doing ‘yet another carbon frame’ that we’d actually do something a bit different and go composite. By composite, we mean mating a Titanium lower section to a Carbon Fiber upper section. “Why bother?” you may ask. Well, by doing so you incorporate the great springy ride of Ti with the low resonance characteristics of Cf, so in effect having a big spring out of the saddle, and a buzz killer in the saddle. On top of that, you also have the heavier material on the lower portion of the frame, improving weight distribution.

Now, what about the all important numbers? Well, this example is just a smidge over 1300g and is a big rough and tumble horizontal 57cm built for a guy who likes to sprint, so no weight saving measures were taken. Like all our frames though, every single part of the frame is fully customisable (yes, even the carbon) so an example as low as a kilo would be entirely possible. Not that we could be bothered playing the weight game mind you, coz it’s only relevant in your garage.

So there it is, the new range-topping Tephra CTi in all it’s Team Orange glory. Should have pix of the complete bike built up early next week, which I’m really looking forward to.

Before I sign off, a quick ‘thank you’ to Reynolds Composites / Macleans for their support with this project.

Posted by warwick @ 9:41 am

17 Oct 2007

Thought I’d post some pictures of the latest Arete Ti to roll out the door. This frame is a little different for us, because the client had very specific wants and desires -

“No tube ovalisation at all.” *eek!*

“No machined headtube.”

“Monostay Seatstays.” *eek!*

“29er.”

Whew. Okay so compared to the EWR this one is a relative cakewalk, but the good thing about specific, non “what we normally do” requests it is that it keeps you on your toes and keeps your spidey senses tingling.

Posted by warwick @ 2:11 am

15 Oct 2007

Sorry folks, but it looks like the site has been hacked or something and some bogus link to an exe and pron has found it’s way into the front page!

We’re correcting it now and it should be gone sometime today.

So basically, we didn’t put it there and we recommend you not be silly enough to click anything. Apologies to all and we should be back to our regular scheduling shortly.

Posted by warwick @ 12:29 am