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Lighter and stronger than steel, corrosion-resistant and suitable for most applications, titanium is often regarded as a ‘space-age’ material, a spin-off of the 20th century space and arms race. While this image of titanium being a by-product of the spy plane and star wars industry suited the ‘90’s marketing men, the origins of the titanium frame has much humbler beginnings.
Although the 'A' in its title alludes to arms and arms and armaments, the company behind the first titanium frame of any kind made its name in the Boer War, not the Cold War.
BSA, or The Birmingham Small Arms Company, was founded in 1861.
A century later, BSA had grown to become one of the UK’s leading industrial concerns producing everything from air pistols to taxicab bodies.
On two wheels, its motorcycle division was the world leader in the booming mid-60’s moto-cross market. So much so, in order to maintain its position as the No.1 factory MX bike brand, BSA embarked on a money-no-object plan to produce another winning MX bike.
Building on its already world-beating works race model, the Gold Star, BSA engineers turned to titanium as the means to further lighten and strengthen the bike.
At the heart of the project was a titanium frame, built by near-neighboursSpeedwell Gear Case Company of Witton, Birmingham. This it was estimated, would yield weight savings of 60% against its steel counterpart.
Speedwell engineers did their best to work within the restraints imposed by BSA’s design, producing the first examples in just 15 weeks of the project start-up.
Ultimately, although the project produced some racing successes, limited understanding of the material properties of titanium proved its undoing.
After all, no one had built a Ti frame before – meaning no experience to draw on ... or failures to learn from.
The huge development costs (it is estimated each of the 20 or so frames produced cost in excess of £4000 - at a time when a steel race frameset would set you back around £35-£40) ensured the project was a guaranteed commercial failure, leading to the project being scrapped.
However, the projects' legacy was that Speedwell had gained a great deal of invaluable hands-on experience working with titanium tube, far greater than any company could have hoped for outside of military research budgets. Not only that, but they were also sitting on a shed full of titanium frame-specific tooling courtesy of BSA …
So, in 1972, Speedwell pressed ahead with plans to develop and build the worlds' first commercially-available titanium race frame.
By mid-1973, they had their first working version, the Titalite, distribution agreements in France and the UK, and were on the brink of winning some priceless publicity.
Ron Kitching, Managing Director of the UK distribution firm bearing his name, acted as go-between in a deal to supply a custom-built Speedwell toLuis Ocana of the BIC team. (’Big Ron’ was well-connected within the French & Spanish bike industry). A frame was delivered to the BIC team mechanics at the French Dauphiné Libéré stage race in June '73. After favourable testing, the decision was made to reserve the bike for selective mountain stage use by Ocana in the upcoming the Tour De France, with the Speedwell replacing his team-issue Motobecane when conditions called for the lightest possible bike.
History shows the bike helped Ocana to a controversial Tour win over Eddy Merckx, but at the time, Speedwell were unable to directly link to Ocana’s success in any of its advertising.
Initially, Speedwell had to rely on rumour and club-room gossip to spread the word of its success.
Nevertheless, rumour and gossip make powerful marketing tools and the Speedwell Titanium got off to a flying start.
However, mid-70’s Britain was blighted by industrial and political unrest.
Power-cuts and dock strikes and a government-imposed three-day working week all took their toll on sales in the all-important US market. Speedwell struggled on bravely in the face of adversity, but the frame did not attract the kind of sales numbers a Tour-winning bike would receive today.
The original frame design itself somewhat hampered sales, with its rangy wheelbase, gappy clearances and relaxed angles at a time when a short wheelbase, close clearances and upright angles were considered essential by the modern racing man.
When sales did pick up, the laborious build-proceed meant they simply couldn’t make them fast enough to supply demand. In the years that followed, despite re-designs and increased production, Speedwell’s jewel struggled to gain the widespread acceptance they had wished for and by 1977, production had folded and the company decided to walk away from the bike game table.
Nevertheless, the seeds were sewnand Speedwell’s gamble on titanium as a viable frame material was to prove a winning one a decade later for first Merlin and then Litespeed of the USA.
Very few Speedwell’s remain this day, but perhaps the finest example is the bike owned by rare bike specialists Classic Bike of Bussum, near Utrecht in the Netherlands.
This bike is one of the last to leave the factory and features a fully-polished frame. The Speedwell is equipped throughout with Campagnolo Super Record components, which also made the most of titanium as an alternative to steel. The exceptional quality of the Speedwell welding and finishing is visible for all to see, testament to Speedwell’s desire to produce the ‘Rolls Royce of bicycles’.
The work is even more exceptional when you consider the Speedwell was built the pre-TIG welding, pre-back purge era; these are gas-welded joints carried out in an argon-vacuum welding chamber, which must have been an extremely cumbersome process requiring exceptional levels of dexterity. The hand-finished welds speak volumes of the skill and attention to detail involved in finishing the junctions of the frame.
As the photographs show, apart from a few tarnished areas on the top tube decal, the bike in the Classic Bike collection is almost exactly as it was the day it was first built.
For any collector of period bicycles this would be a most welcome addition to their collection.
When you consider the role the Speedwell played in the evolution of today’s handmade bike scene, it holds a special place in bike history. Sure, other titanium marques followed, but Speedwell was first to prove the Ti-tubed frame was a viable alternative.
