Man, some buzz-killing in here.
Im going to be interested in which frame does take the lead in popularity. Sold more, and all that fun stuff.
Comparisons do matter.
What impressed me most when I got my hands on one of these frames was the welding. I’ve owned some high-end mtb frames (Kona Hei Hei, Litespeed Pisgah) and the welding was as neat as the Kona, which is the best I have seen. It is not just the added strength and longevity these welds give, they are a pleasure to look at every time you pick it up. It is one of the first things I would grab from my house if there was a fire, although it would probably be okay if I didn’t 
Fair enough, well I am glad to see that someone else has taken the step to producing custom frames, hopefully yours should be at the standard you claim, so it should be decent enough.
But, can you really say CF tubing isn’t flexy? No seriously. True yours might be a little more rigid than normal, but CF is inherently flexy, it’s just a simple law of the material almost. CF as we know it in cycling is pretty much a plastic composite material with carbon weavings inside. Despite it being lighter than aluminium, it isn’t stiffer than Aluminium, Steel, or Titanium alloys.
Your CF frames will probably be a bit lighter, since it’s a combo of Plastic composite tubing and aluminium pieces, and if it’s anything like the rare CF biketrials forks I’ve seen, then I’m excited too. 
What’s your warranty service like by the way? Though in the short term it has served you well, I suspect that riders like Joe Hodges would somehow find a way to separate the CF tubing from the aluminium pieces as it’s pressure bonded together with some special glue/resin, right? Meanwhile, is the neck carbon fibre too? In the long run I do suspect that it may separate or shear at the neck junction where it joins the alu crown.
Then again, prove me wrong.
OMG! These frames are all so amazingly sexweeee! 
But when comparing the CF frames to Ti frames… it’s just logic:
Pros of Triton:
-Made by highly skilled professionals with decades of experience
-A frame from a brand with a great reputation in a range of cycle sports
-Hand-made one by one
-High quality tubing and materials
-High quality welding
-Rock solid titanium tubing
-Stiffest frame in the world currently, I have felt one!
-Strongest frame in the world currently
-Amazing lifetime warranty
-The most dent resistant frame currently
-Eternally reweldable
-Killer crown design, amazing concept!
-Very lightweight already at 520g!
-Could be made even lighter!
-Scratches don’t show up easily compared to other frames
-Can be made to whatever custom spec you ask for!
Cons of Triton:
-Expensive at 550 USD base price!.. but it’s a bargain in reality!
-Takes time to make each frame and to ship
[B]
Pros of CF frame:[/B]
-Made by that high quality race car company
-Good warranty
-Sexy new concept inspired by gorgeous bike forks!!
-Potentially one of the lightest frames possible!
Cons of CF frame:
-Comparatively speaking, tubing is softer, flexier, and weaker than metal equivalent tubing
-Scratches will look obvious and ugly on CF
-Eventually the CF tubes will fracture after repeated abuse, especially smashing against walls during stacks
-Flexier than KH and Triton frames
-Still fairly expensive
-Tubes and aluminium parts are bonded/glued together instead of welded, which in the long run can separate after rigorous hardcore riding, and generally it inevitably holds true when I look at bike forks even…
-Bigger fatter aluminium crown that is more prone to knee bashing.
So in conclusion from my deductions, the CF is a better option if you want to go sickeningly light and want a different look than usual, but I think the Triton can become even lighter if it wanted to and still has an overall better design, material, strength, stiffness, and reliability. The quality standard of materials and manufacturing for both of these frames is probably equal though.
FUSION time!:
Though it has been proven endless times that CF forks are flexier than normal metal forks, always and always. Some like it though!
This seems to be heading into a CF vs. Ti debate where CF is being cited as ‘flexy’ and Ti as ‘rigid’. If anything the opposite is true, although both can be fashioned for either characteristic.
An F1 suspension wishbone is flat in the plane which is desired to be flexible, but the driver’s monocoque is boxed in all planes required to be rigid. A CF bike fork (like any fork) is flexible because of the layback of the fork flexing over the forces in front of it’s midpoint. On a uni the (very rigid) plane of circular cross section will usually be almost directly above the tyre contact point, potentially off-setting this.
Titanium is naturally flexible to the point where high end mtb’s exploit this to have rear suspension section with no mechanical pivot (Litespeed, Merlin), just using the elastic resiliance of the ti flexing, and a shock in the gap of the rear triangle, to facilitate rear suspension. Ti has another property which borders on magical for mtb: it is ‘dead’ to many of the frequencies of vibration which make you feel numb and fatigued.
I believe it is the gusseted design of the Triton which makes it so rigid, and they are very rigid. Kona used to demonstrate the Hei Hei frame at trade shows by measuring the distance between dropouts and then compressing them together until they touched before micro-measuring the gap to prove that they had ‘sprung’ back to their exact original position. I struggle to detect any flex across the empty dropouts of a Triton trials frame by hand, it is quite amazingly rigid, even before you attach the wheel.
Exciting times though. We seem to be lucky enough to have top-level engineers fashioning one-wheeled exotica for us to choose between. Looking forward to these moving from unobtanium to obtanium…
CF being flexy is because of the resin used. Typically you want a flexible resin so that it is less likely to break or chip, if you use a harder resin, the brittleness goes up a little but the stiffness can skyrocket. Due to pure carbon’s almost magical stiffness (many times greater than steel) if you add more layers of carbon or use a denser weave you can achieve much stiffer blends. The controllability of composites makes them much better than their metal bretheren for many applications. Also, adding boron fiber to carbon fiber makes a super stiff blend without compromising strength, Calfee Design uses boron/carbon blends in many of their bike frames.
I built an airplane wing out of a kevlar/carbon fiber weave. The kevlar was red and the carbon black, so it looked pretty gnarly. Had no stiffness issues, but then again our tolerance for flex was a bit more than you’re talking here.
ya i think once my frames get out there you will see. one of the advantages of not welding the frames is that we can have a great warranty. at any time if something breaks it can easily be replaced. we havnt worked out the details yet but im hoping we can just put a lifetime warranty on it. if not it would only be a 10 dollar repair tops unless you somehow total it, which considering my frame i think would be impossible. i would be fine with driving a car over the top of my frame.
i LOVE the welds on your frames btw. they are megan fox beautiful
Good to see some more people with a real world knowledge of the properties of materials. Our carbon will use a stiff resin, and will be joined to the crown with an epoxy with a tensile strength of around 5000lbs, with tight tolerances between the surfaces. The crown itself is CNC’d from high grade billet aluminum using a surfacing program which will allow for smooth surfaces and high strength. Any of the pictures you have seen of the frame were of the preliminary prototype. The final prototype will be completed in a few weeks, with drastic changes to the shape. Out of curiosity, what grade of titanium is used on the custom frames? and is it vacuum welded?
the titanium is a russian blend called OT4 I believe.
Thanks for compliment though it’s Dmitry and the chicos@Triton that deserve the praise!
Props to you for wanting to offer that kind of post-sales service. Triton has been operating by that principal since the beginning, offering lifetime coverage. Thankfully, most titanium alloys, including the one used for Tritons, are perfectly able to be rewelded back to full strength in the rare event of any severe damage. You’d genuinely have to be throwing it off buildings and landing it seat-first to manage that though. 
To me, it’s not about the competition of sales. The price we set for the Triton Sponge frames were very low, not much higher than manufacturing cost in actuality. Profit is not the motive of Triton to begin with anyway, as it started as a hobby of Dmitry’s that grew huge!
Sounds good about the frames, I’m glad it’s going different to what random little clips of the protos I’ve seen on the odd vid I saw casually.
The Ti alloy used is ‘OT4’, though it actually has a standard Western-world code that is more comparable to the other alloys, I forget right now though. It’s not one used in the Western World, as it’s exclusive to the Russian Federation, ever since the end of the Cold War. Russia itself processes and uses a lot more titanium in its manufacture and industries than the US if memory serves me correct. Triton have done their homework well, very well!
Cool, have you gotten any of the price quotes from Dmitri yet?
Yeh, what’s the price for a 20"
Dmitry hasn’t been online in a while. He’s just very very busy, but he definitely is looking to start everything up. I’ll let everyone know when he’s ready and set to begin taking orders again.
Base price for a standard Trials version was 550 USD before, it may go up slightly depending on material costs these days. Titanium isn’t cheap. I’ll ask Dmitry anyway. Depending on demand, if it’s high, then maybe he’ll be OK with not passing on the higher material costs to consumers.
Got bored, it looked pretty plain by itself, and I loved the red and black stickering Zack did on his ages ago, gave it a mean look. So I stickered it up with some stuff Jess sent me in the mail (thanks man!) on the neck and some random Odyssey 41 Thermal fork sticker on the legs… Now I’m after a Koxx Dan Heaton Pro Street badge for the bottom of the neck.
Last Page
Pretty good mix Id say, sorry I didnt post this sooner. I dont get on here much.
The setlist was:
Worship Your Demons
Graves Of The Fathers
We Bleed
Abigor
The Headsmen
Emaciate
Slit Your Guts
Carrionshine
Anoit The Dead
Cold Hate, Warm Blood
Phobophile Encore
I hope it’s soon. I’m gettin all antsy.
does anyone have one of those nimbus titanium frames? I know it doesn’t seem worth it at all but I thought someone would have bought one by now
You know what else would look good on that frame? A wheel and a seat! C’mon Sponge, you’ve been messing about with that frame for a couple of years now. Surely it’s time to ride it now?
STM