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TRed builds superlight <6.3kg disc brake REA Titanide ltd. titanium road superbike

TRed Rea Titanide ti road bike, superlight custom limited edition titanium road superbike, complete
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TRed has an all-new superlight, limited edition evolution of their Aracnide titanium road bike called the REA Titanide. Developed by their R&D division over the past two years, the Rea is the first T°Red bike frame to officially get a TOOT Engineering workshop label, taking their metal bike craftsmanship to new levels, or rather new lows – fully custom built-to-order and available with a number of options that subvert the UCI 6.8kg weight limit… under 6.3kg with a power meter, sub 6.1kg without…

TRed REA Titanide limited edition superlight titanium road bike

Known for building fully custom bikes in pretty much any material – aluminum, steel, titanium & carbon – their craftsmanship seems to really shine best in metalwork. And while unique tubing, shaping and parametrically optimized geometry & ride quality make their bikes distinct, TRed knows that often times buyers ignore technical detail and innovation, falling back to one single stat: complete bike weight.

So, they’ve again gone super light…

TRed Rea Titanide ti road bike, superlight custom limited edition titanium road superbike, name
c. T°Red

TRed names their new lightweight bike project Rea – after the mythological mother of Zeus, one of the twelve ancient Greek Titans, or more appropriately one of the six Titanide women – daughter of the original earth god Gea & sky god Urano. She was the rebel that birthed & ultimately established the Olympian gods.

TRed Rea Titanide ti road bike, superlight custom limited edition titanium road superbike, complete angled

T°Red talks of Rea being the original heroine, a strong & brave Titanide, but also as something an outlaw. That’s where the super light comes in, outlawed by the UCI for competition falling under their 6.8kg weight limit. Three Rea custom builds are available from 6.1-6.9kg depending on what you are looking for in a superbike!

Superlight custom road bike – Tech details

TRed Rea Titanide ti road bike, superlight custom limited edition titanium road superbike, frameset

This isn’t the first incredibly lightweight metal bike from TRed. We’ve already seen the superlight 6.6kg Aracnide Acciaio OOL steel disc brake road bike, and a number of other lightweight bikes of all types before that. But this new titanium Rea family in unique in bringing together T°Red’s all-Italian TOOT Engineering development workshop run by Romolo Stanco, and being the first frame itself to get the TOOT works lab naming.

This limited edition Rea Titanide (only 21 complete bikes will be made) shares the same lightweight ti frame as the rest of the new Rea family, incorporating many of the same optimizations we saw in the most recent Aracnide A03 titanium road bike – just taken to the next level. The Rea Titanide also gets a special sandblasted titanium finish with hand mirror polished graphics.

TRed Rea Titanide ti road bike, superlight custom limited edition titanium road superbike, frame details

The Rea frame is TIG-welded from what TRed calls Four.Ti titanium, a mix of carefully shaped, proprietary lightweight ti tubing with bottom bracket, dropouts & headtube machined from solid blocks of 6/4 titanium.

TRed Rea Titanide ti road bike, superlight custom limited edition titanium road superbike, T47 BB

The BB is a proven modern standard T47 threaded bottom bracket, dropouts are 12mm thru-axles with replaceable alloy derailleur hanger and flat mount disc brake tabs, and the tapered headtube gets machined-in bearing reinforcements and is built to incorporate fully internal cable routing.

TRed Rea Titanide ti road bike, superlight custom limited edition titanium road superbike, internal cable routing

Cables are routed fully internally through an ultralight, handmade-in-Spain Darimo carbon two-piece Ellipse cockpit that still allows adjustability with everything hidden inside. Then, inside through a Deda DCR headset system that still keeps the more sleek, smaller diameter upper bearing.

Finally, the TOOT T20D fork is also unique, developed in a close relationship with Dedacciai, to allow the rear brake line into the downtube, while routing the front brake to the fork. Interestingly again, TRed prefers to use traditional brake wire actuation, to control the light but powerful JuinTech GT mechanical 4-piston disc brakes with 160mm rotors.

TRed Rea Titanide ti road bike, superlight custom limited edition titanium road superbike, Darimo integrated cockpit

Geometry is fully custom with the Rea, using TRed’s proprietary LeHonard parametric design software to tailor both fit & ride quality individually to each buyer – offering Xtreme race-oriented or Sport all-rounder geometries ass as a starting point.

TRed Rea Titanide – Complete bike build details

TRed Rea Titanide ti road bike, superlight custom limited edition titanium road superbike, Red AXS eeWings drivetrain

To get the limited edition Rea Titanide as light as possible, TRed gives this bike a suitably premium superlight, superbike spec… starting with a SRAM Red AXS mechanical brake groupset.

TRed Rea Titanide ti road bike, superlight custom limited edition titanium road superbike, Gelu Darimo cockpit

More Darimo carbon components help, like the new T2 15mm SB seatpost & that crazy 4g carbon seatpost clamp, topped by a Gelu carbon saddle. It gets a specially finished Cane Creek eeWings ti crankset with matching graphics, what appears to be a Sigeyi AXO power meter spider, and 48/35T Carbon-Ti chainrings.

TRed Rea Titanide ti road bike, superlight custom limited edition titanium road superbike, tubulars

Wheels are TOOT’s own Yottalight 32mm deep 3KT carbon tubulars with Vittoria Corsa Speed tires glued on.

TRed Rea Titanide ti road bike, superlight custom limited edition titanium road superbike, 6.3kg weight

The end result of all that is this 55cm Rea Titanide that TRed sent us a photo of hanging on the scale at just 6,290g.

Other lightweight custom TRed Rea build options

TRed Rea Titanide ti road bike, superlight custom limited edition titanium road superbike, complete

Beyond the Titanide, Rea Urano and Rea Gea builds are also possible sharing the same lightweight ti frame. Urano goes even lighter – down to 6.1kg (55cm) with carbon TOOT cranks & Chris King BB, but no power meter, plus even lighter TOOT tubular wheels with carbon hubs. The Gea build is more of an everyday superbike at a claimed weight of 6.9kg (55cm) with a Force AXS group, TOOT carbon cranks, Rotor alloy chainrings, TOOT cockpit, and TOOT OOL X-Tech tubeless wheels with carbon hubs.

Pricing is expensive as you’d expect, and available on request depending on your specific build intentions. But complete TRed Rea superlight titanium bike builds start from 8990€.

TRedBikes.com

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31 Comments
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Miclaroc
Miclaroc
3 years ago

Lovely bike to be sure. But kind of deceptive given they don’t give frame weights and you’re basically buying the lightest possible components and tubular wheels (which I would debate as “everyday” superbike ) etc so yeah, it’s light, but so is ANYTHING you’d build with these parts.
That being said it looks great. I wonder how it feels given such crazy low seat stays and I REALLY wonder if that seat post clamp will last longer than 100 km given how much seat post is sticking out. I’ve got less than that and even the light metal clamps I’ve tried all pop.

Tom
Tom
3 years ago
Reply to  Miclaroc

interesting, haven’t seen that issue myself. Inconvenient to be sure, but easily fixed. Clearly, a heavier band is in order for you.

Miclaroc
Miclaroc
3 years ago
Reply to  Tom

Yeah campagnolo or Thomson have never let me down there’s better places to save 50 grams

NG
NG
3 years ago
Reply to  Miclaroc

Wow…obviously paper thin 6/4 tubing. Less metal to dampen road vibrations so will most likely not provide the titanium ride quality the metals famed for…
Probably stiff to.
A Titanium frame trying to emulate a carbon one…which will never happen…
Just as a carbon frame will never give the feel of a titanium…

nooner
nooner
3 years ago
Reply to  NG

Article above states: “dropouts & headtube machined from solid blocks of 6/4 titanium.”
The main triangle/rest of the frame is prolly just standard 3/2.5 Ti.
An all 6/4 Ti frame would be lighter and stiffer, (and much more difficult to build and expensive)

O. Tan
3 years ago

All this components + Aethos, bam! That’ll be some uber lightweight disc bike

Dolan
Dolan
3 years ago

Strange that frame weight isn’t mentioned. Maybe in the 1200g range? And mechanical discs… bleh.
Stunning bike nonetheless.

Shafty
Shafty
3 years ago
Reply to  Dolan

No frame weight because they’re custom. I’ll bet it can vary considerably.

Dolan
Dolan
3 years ago
Reply to  Shafty

Generally they pick a size and weigh the frame at that size. At least it gives you a general idea. For example, T-Lab does custom Ti as well and doesn’t hesitate to give a frame weight.

Ron
Ron
3 years ago

Their website is a disaster with no product images and broken links galore, their facebook page is down…

Involuntary Soul
Involuntary Soul
3 years ago

all that fluff and no frame weight?

Greg
Greg
3 years ago

Considering their steel bike was 6.6kg, I doubt this frame is very light. I’d wager in the 1300g range, if not more. Some of the parts are silly, like the rotors and cable actuated brakes. And tubulars! I don’t mind tubulars, but IMO for “practical” weight weenie-ism, I consider that cheating.
The best thing they can do is get rid of the weird stuff and just don’t call it light. Nobody is buying a ti bike for the low weight.

Jeff D
Jeff D
3 years ago
Reply to  Greg

Agreed. Managed to get ti frame (2008 LS Ghisallo) under 5kg and it was noodle at best. Moved all WW parts to diff frame (2012 LS T1 Archon size S was 980gr, then M 1010gr) and more modest carbon part and to rim tubeless rims, still managed to get 5.3kg sans pedals but still daily ridden

An203
An203
3 years ago
Reply to  Greg

Resuming tubular to WW is quite incorrect. Yes they can be lighter (rims are lighter and pneumatic usually a bit heavier) but they ride quite differently and that changes quite a lot the riding experience (obviously you don’t have to ride the dead-conti tubulars but more Vittoria or Veloflex ones).

JL
JL
3 years ago

It would be lighter had the glue job used less glue. Look at the overflow…

DomQuix0te
DomQuix0te
3 years ago
Reply to  JL

I’m glad I wasn’t the only one who noticed that!

Thesteve4761
Thesteve4761
3 years ago

How can TOOT be printed that many times in one article without there being a single fart joke built in. Or in the comments yet. Today the internet failed.

None Given
None Given
3 years ago
Reply to  Thesteve4761

The entire situation stinks.

Miclaroc
Miclaroc
3 years ago
Reply to  Thesteve4761

Who smelt it dealt it Thesteve …

An203
An203
3 years ago

That’s always interesting and it’s a very nice build, very coherent, with a great attention to details. It may suits certain all-around practices but titanium and discs can’t allow you to compete in the weight battle (neither the stiffness to weight).
In the meantime my SuperSix evo HM rim brake is 5.6kg (with gps, power meter…), while being significantly stiffer.

Large D
Large D
3 years ago
Reply to  An203

Ti can theoretically compete in stiffness, you do realize carbon prepreg has resin in it? Resin isn’t stiff. Carbon frames are constructed by laying plies from zero degree to loading which dilutes the stiffness of the frame. Where Ti can’t compete is in weight, which is why your rim braked carbon bike is lighter (which you mentioned because there is always ONE person that has to let everybody else know how much they think their bike with older technology is superior to everything else).

Robin
Robin
3 years ago
Reply to  Large D

And even more important point is that not every bike needs to have the maximum possible lateral, torsional, or other stiffness. In fact, there’s a decided lack of research showing that stiffness is the bike performance metric non plus ultra. It’s not a given that a less stiff bike cannot perform as well as a stiffer one on the road.

Alas, people like to kvetch about marketing BS, but so many of those people then turn around and regurgitate the most worn out marketing bits–“light weight”, “stiff”–without showing any evidence those metrics make the difference they think they do. The physics shows that the small differences in mass among bikes don’t make a huge difference in performance and make no difference in a lot of cases. The physics on stiffness? Well, it doesn’t say anything right now. I’ve yet to see a hysteresis curve for a bike frame or anything that quantifies how x% increase in torsional or lateral stiffness results in a y% increase in speed or a z% decrease in the power required to go a given speed.

I’m willing to bet that Tadej Pogačar, Primoz Roglic, Wout van Aert, MvdP, and so many others could win no matter what material their frame was made from.

An203
An203
3 years ago
Reply to  Robin

Few things. It’s not because it hasn’t been published that work hasn’t been done (and it has been done…), then, talking about hysteresis means that you are totally missing the point how a mechanical+biomechanical system works. if I am trying to make this simple, the question should be: is the energy the cyclist spent bending a structure then released at the end of the pedal stroke in a plane that makes you move forward or released in a plane that doesn’t serve the pedal-stroke.

Robin
Robin
3 years ago
Reply to  An203

If you’d read more carefully you’d have seen this:

“…or anything that quantifies how x% increase in torsional or lateral stiffness results in a y% increase in speed or a z% decrease in the power required to go a given speed.”

That statement clearly encompasses any return of energy from the frame that contributes to forward motion.

An203
An203
3 years ago
Reply to  Robin

No, Again, you are totally missing the bio mechanical part and only consider the mechanical part. It’s not return of energy, is how it allows your defined body effort to be efficiently turned into something useful to go forward. If lateral flex is built during the 2-4 o’clock down-stroke (most efficient part of the stroke) and released once you are at 5-6 o’clock (very low efficiency) then that’s useless. And that’s why stiffness matter in key acceleration moment.

An203
An203
3 years ago
Reply to  Large D

Did I say that Ti can’t be stiff? I said that as a material, Titanium can’t compete in terms of weight with carbon-fibre-based frames (even with ti-noodle frames like the Ghisallo) nor stiffness-to-weight. It has other qualities (strength to weight for example), but not those 2.
Can you enlighten me where I mentioned old technology? or where I mention that it was superior to EVERYTHING else? (tip “It may suits certain all-around practices”).
Please read people messages properly.

Ed
Ed
3 years ago

Assassin bikes has a 1,400 gram titanium frame that fits 40c tires, with a threaded T47 BB find full internal cable routing for $1,200.

Web presence is handy
Web presence is handy
3 years ago
Reply to  Ed

Who or what is Assassin bikes? I haven’t seen bupkis on them, an over priced fixed gear with 25c thickslicks, an Aussie dirt bike company and a ti bicycle company called Aussie Cycle Works which has an older website (2016) with a decent looking Ti road bike called the assassin which doesn’t look to have that clearance and T47 and is also $2300. A company with little or no easy access web presence is not one I want to buy from.

We can say what we want about TRed but I can access a website easily and contact them. Not saying their product is good or bad but I can get in contact and that is important if you want to buy something. This isn’t the old days when you had to use a phone book to find someone or know the guy because he lived nearby and you knew they built frames. This is 2020 we have computers everywhere even our watches can be little computers, surely these Assassin folks could get a WordPress or something that you can find. I would unless I wasn’t trying to build my business.

Thesteve4761
Thesteve4761
3 years ago

So much jargon. So little meaning. Toot.

gradeisgood
3 years ago

@TheSteve4761
The joke is in there: “all-rounder geometries ass a starting point.”

Martin
Martin
2 years ago

I think only a flattop chain is technically compatible with AXS road cassettes.
I really like this bike. An Aethos was mentioned. I’d consider trading ~500g in the frame to gain the robustness of Ti and custom geometry and custom paint. I built an Aethos for my wife … it’s awesome and is top of the list for my next bike as well. The green one is pretty insane.

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