Lacquer on a titanium frame?

ishaw

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Looking at buying a ti frame, which appears to be lacquered. Why? Is this normal? It's peeling in a few places so is it worth living with or removing?

Thoughts?
 
Re:

Are you sure it's ti and not a plated finish? If it is ti then I'd just strip the lacquer off and leave it how it should be!
 
As above, you sure its Ti? I think you can try with magnet, Ti has slight bit of magnetism but nothing like that of steel/cromo. My old Raleigh Dynatechs and M-Trax I have all have their Ti tubes painted... I never really understood why but i'm sure I read its because it was a cheap Ti Tubeset and you could see the seam joints in them and made them look 'ugly' unless painted.
 
It's not that unusual to paint Titanium frames. The most notable manufacturer to do that is Serotta. Sometimes the customers like some color... usually the rear seat-stays are left bare titanium.
 
Crescent also painted their Ti frames, essentially to keep them identifiable as part of the branding exercise.

Lacquer is not normal, and like painting, is pretty pointless from a mechanical perspective. Worth removing.
 
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