Titanium. The very word conjures up notions of the finest bicycle components available. Light, durable, and all the special attributes of a metal with almost magical properties.
My first brush with exotic titanium components was in the early 1970’s when a small company out of Palo Alto California began offering special hand made bolt kits made of titanium.
Every racing cyclist I knew ate that up like candy! They were available in small quantities and replaced your otherwise heavy steel fastening bolts with 6AI-4V titanium.
This was the birth of titanium after market bicycle parts.
I believe these ti bolt kits actually inspired Campagnolo to start offering them on their new line of Super Record groupos in 1973.
So, what’s happening today in the world of titanium components? Well, something special is coming out of Italy and that’s the work of Dante Codeluppi who is the brains behind Mèti.
Titanium 6AI-4V thru axles, custom made in Italy to your specifications by Dante Codeluppi of Mèti.
Dante is manufacturing light weight titanium 6AI-4V thru axles that are just beautiful. I spent the last few weeks on holiday riding gravel in northern Ontario and I took the opportunity to test out these works of art.
I had Dante custom make me a pair of thru axles that precisely fitted my frame and fork dimensions.
I always insist in personally testing a new product before I would consider offering it to my clientele.
Well, what was the verdict? My initial thoughts went to just how light these are, weighing in at 32 grams for the front and 42 grams for the rear was impressive to say the least.
The artfully sculpted domed end has 3 finely cut wrench flats and an allan key size of 6mm.
The actual finish was just like jewellery! Polished to a mirror finish and made to exacting standards. Dante’s workmanship was impressive. His use of Grade 5 titanium or 6AI-4V as its known, ensures that these parts will last a very long time.
Each set of these titanium thru axles are custom made, because they must accurately match the thread pitch and the length of the thru axles they will replace. Careful measurements of your existing thru axles will need to be made to assure that the new ones will be a correct fit.
If you are riding a titanium frame and you just can’t resist some more titanium bling on your bike these are a definite temptation. Having said that, they will work perfectly on any frame material and they look just fantastic.
Delivery times for a custom order is approximately 5 weeks depending on when that order goes in. Shipping is by DHL so that’s fairly quick from Italy.
If you have any questions, just get in touch and I’d be happy to answer any of your queries.
Cognoscenti Cycles is excited to be able to offer a very special custom product like this.