FAT CHANCE TITANIUM 1993 Fully Blinged out m/l

[M-Power]

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/33543748...BZ3W6y6ToG&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY
Very rare beast this, so much Ti and bling.

YOLO

 

[Dave_Mars]

Beautiful bike. Likely to never be ridden in anger again. Just hung on a wall. A sad fate for a high performance machine

 

[d8mok]

Is this normal for one of these ?

 

[tangent]

IRD titanium forks … what a cool combo…possibly only bettered by the fabled PACE / Merlin RC30 collaboration (if it actually existed).

@d8mok not sure which welding fabrictaion detail your focussing on but I’ll post 2 images of my own number (unlucky) 13 1993 FAT Titanium frame. I’ll leave to FAT engineers and experts to comment further - but have learnt fabrications methods were kinda experimental early on?
If you do a retrobike search look up ‘irobot’ posts (hopefully got user name correct?) who shared incredible insights into the technicalites of making these FAT ti frames, when I asked years ago on here.

013T3M


down tube ‘double butted’ sleeve weld seam

 

[d8mok]

IRD titanium forks … what a cool combo…possibly only bettered by the fabled PACE / Merlin RC30 collaboration (if it actually existed).

@d8mok not sure which welding fabrictaion detail your focussing on but I’ll post 2 images of my own number (unlucky) 13 1993 FAT Titanium frame. I’ll leave to FAT engineers and experts to comment further - but have learnt fabrications methods were kinda experimental early on?
If you do a retrobike search look up ‘irobot’ posts (hopefully got user name correct?) who shared incredible insights into the technicalites of making these FAT ti frames, when I asked years ago on here.

013T3M


down tube ‘double butted’ sleeve weld seam

Yes they weld running down the downtube. Admittedly I’ve never seen a Fat Ti in real life but that stood out to me

 

[tangent]

Yes they weld running down the downtube. Admittedly I’ve never seen a Fat Ti in real life but that stood out to me

Hope this OK to say / write but the welds 121 frames later on from my own look neater … but with upmost respect to the fabricators the processes / prototype tooling & processes involved in producing this frame are / were radical to say the least…

Thanks @M-Power for posting this thread, has inspired me to contemplate bringing my scruffy ealry frame back to life…

 

[greencat]

Front brake pads are on the wrong way round, aren't they?

 

[M-Power]

The first ever Ti mountainbike frames were made around 85 by Gary Helfrich when he worked at FAT CITY CYCLES Somerville Mass.Until the very early 90s Ti frames were very noodly and way too flexy in the BB.They could suffer from terrifying speed wobble on fast descents and were always made of plain gauge Ti tubing. FAT were the first to start customising Ti tubing by hand lathing it to get externally butted tubes to fine tune rigidity and handling with feel.

Together with the gusseted tubing and BB sleve as seen here ( found on Proto 91, 92-93 frames), most of the frame and certainly BB flex was eliminated but CRUCIALLY not at the expense of handling and ride comfort. FAT were the pioneers of Ti frame customization back then. Merlin experimenyed with chemical butting techniques in the early days but alas it failed. The process FAT used was very time consuming, requiring expensive machinery and highly skilled artisan welders like Scott Bengtson ( IROBOT ) so thats why the frames were/are the most expensive, even more than Merlin Ti frames. Merlin made tens of thousands of Ti frames but Ti FATs are very rare by comparison.

The pinnacle of FAT Ti frames are those made in 94, their last year of production before they moved to the Serotta factory in NY. They used unique to FAT custom spec Ti tubes from Ancotech. The tubes are double butted all lathed by hand, exquisitely welded but with no gussets like this. They are works of art and ride the nicest of all. The later non wishbone stay Ti frames from NY are a softer ride ( appreciated as you get older ! ) but no less beautiful, with externally butted tubing. Some prefer the look of the 92/93 gusseted frames though. There are detailed threads on this and the evolution of Ti FAT frames on Fatcogs.com.

 

[vtwinvince]

It's cool, but even in that spec the price is retarded.

 

[Hotwheels.]

It's cool, but even in that spec the price is retarded.

I concur.