New look Titan Classics website.

Hi,

I haven't posted in several months, so here goes.   I've changed the Titan Classics website and hopefully you approve.  Although I think it may be a bit chaotic however nicer it may look.
There's a much much wider range of stock now and its mostly titanium motorbike parts rather than Classic UNF/UNC parts although that stock range is slowly growing.

I'm currently restoring a modern classics Honda NSR250 SE (MC28) Japanese market only bike which I imported at astonishing expense.  Had I known at the start I'd not have bothered, but the upside is as I strip to restore the bike I'm modelling the parts in CAD and will have a lot of stuff replicated in ageless and beautiful titanium.

The Mini still needs the wings welding on, front subframe fitting and a spray paint. I was hoping to have it on the road this summer but importing this bike has probably scuppered that.  Oops!

Anyway,  have a look at the Titan Classics shop and I'd love to hear what people think of it.   There's things like free postage to UK and I've tried to get the same level of service people expect of my lathe*dog shop on Ebay.  Which at the time of posting this blog has over 2000+ positive feedback and about 150 happy customers a month.  
I'm offering a 5% discount on the Titan Classics shop over the Ebay shop if you add the coupon code below.  The code doesn't expire so you can use it over and over in the checkout.
5% discount titan classics

I'll try and cobble together a survey of what people would like manufactured again.  

Cheers

Rich

Titan Classics TITANIUM AUTO PARTS

Testing you own titanium products

There comes a point after knowing the physical properties of TITANIUM 6Al/4V knowing that you've designed the part properly in CAD, maybe run a simulation to strength test your part in the computer, then having the finished product in your hand when you have to use it in the real world. 

As you can see I below I use my own parts.  I used to race bicycles for Cardiff Ajax many years ago.  I time trialed 25mile many moons ago in 58mins 28seconds so I'm quite fast.

My intention is to break these parts.  If they don't break, then they're fine.  After an afternoon of stoppies, skids and frame bending sprinting, they didn't break, so they're fine!

 These titanium parts are about 60% the weight of the original part and corrosion proof.

Light weight titanium bolts on unsprung parts (Unsprung means the wheels discs calipers etc that is on the lower side of the suspension) help the suspension give a better ride because of the reduced inertia.

Dome nuts have to be used on 2Stroke heads as water can seep through the thread of the head studs.  These are torqued to 25NM.  This product has to be checked by thrashing my bike around country lanes because titanium has a different rate of expansion that aluminium.  
I once read a Ferrari mechanic say they have to have their titanium wheel nuts re torqued quite often because of the difference in expansion rate in the different metals used in the wheel hub assembly.
I've found no problem with these nuts.

Below are some of the parts replaced with titanium fasteners.  They still work ok but the brake bleed bolts seem quite corroded considering the bike has only done about 15,000 miles.  

I hope you liked this blog.  If you'd like to see more innovative titanium products and their development please check back now and then.

http://titanclassics.com/

http://www.fairingbolt.com/

Titanium bike and car bolts August 2012

Hooray! The new batch of titanium fasteners have arrived!

Titanium metric and American thread bolts for Bikes/bicycle and car

   

Honda replica 90112- MAT-000 fairing bolt

The photo's aren't really doing justice to how good these fasteners look.
On the left here is a titanium fairing bolt for Honda sports bikes.  It doesn't have the dimples in the large flat top surface like the original part but it's about 60% the weight of the Genuine steel item and won't corrode.  There seems to be a bit of a following for these Honda bolts with Honda RC45 owners

  These M8 titanium dome nuts shimmer in the light, and the first 10 are going on the heads of my Suzuki RGV250SP. Standard steel dome heads are 8.3gm each but these titanium ones are 4.6gm giving a weight saving of 37gm on my bike, meaning I can eat a bag of crisps and still be 10gm's lighter on the bike, although the second gear power wheelie is probably a thing of the past on account of my ahem, girth.   :P  

BICYCLE PARTS

The standard steel  rear brake bolt on my racer was getting corroded even after only a few hundred miles so here's me fitting a new corrosion proof and lighter titanium version. Hopefully I'll get time to test it this weekend

I didn't realise the bolt holding the rear brake is shorter than that of the front brake, which will be a later order.  This steel front brake bolt has suffered with the weather and it hasn't been exposed much to the weather.  

Jockey wheel titanium bolts all also ready for sale. The original steels ones seemed to have fared well against the weather, probably due to being caked in oil and grease. :)

Here are the two sides of crank bolts.  They fitted perfectly to my bike so they'll be tested this weekend, if I can sneak out the house for a while.




BRAKE BLEED BOLTS

  

I had two types of titanium brake bleed bolt made. The metric type will be used to replace the rusty originals on my bike and the Imperial (American thread UNF) 1/4" version will be tried out on a friends Classic Mini.  My Mini has KAD front calipers and I think they're different.  Although I'll fit them to the rear Mini brakes. 

That's a few of what titanium parts are going on sale on the Ebay lathe*dog shop http://www.fairingbolt.com/ shop Amazon and http://titanclassics.com/ shop

Initial checks on all the parts are showing the manufacturers have done an outstanding job again.  Every little fillet and chamfer from the CAD files is present.

That's all for now and I hope I haven't bored you too much on the fascinating subject of weight reduction and thread types.  

There are a couple of new GENUINE RGV250SP curved radiators imported from Japan on the lathe*dog Ebay shop which are gorgeous!  They're expensive because all Japanese goods are expensive now.  About double the price they were 6 years ago.

AND FINALLY

I thought you'd like to see a pretty picture of a CAD model.  Normally diagrams to the manufacturer look like blueprints and have a note indicating the thread type, but you can model the thread and bring the model into the renderer PhotoView or Autodesk Showcase and get beautiful realistic renders like below.  

Double banjo bolt rendered in Showcase

  http://www.fairingbolt.com/