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thats all well and good, but how does it compare in fatigue, and whats it like to weld. Ti is actually not as light as alu if i remember correctly, but it is stronger and so tubes can be made thinner, which would allow dents to form more easily, with xc bikes this isnt much of a problem due to their intended use, however as many people will confirm, thing tubes on a trials bike arent a good idea as they dent and fold rather easily.

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Trek says:

ZR 9000 is a proprietary alloy hardened with zirconium – producing frames that are 15% stronger and 15% lighter than industry standard aluminum. Our tests show that ZR 9000 increases the fatigue strength of a frame by up to five times.

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producing frames that are 15% stronger and 15% lighter than industry standard aluminum.

Arent most trials frame unstandard alluminium though?

ie hardened and heat treated etc? Also materilas like u6 would it be as strong as them and as light? as theyre also not very standard :D"

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If it is lighter, stronger, and cheaper than anything else used for frames, then there must be another reason why every manufacturer doesnt use it.

Thats exactly what i thought. :D

I think its a case of value to weight/strength ratio.

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tubes can be made thinner, which would allow dents to form more easily, with xc bikes this isnt much of a problem due to their intended use, however as many people will confirm, thing tubes on a trials bike arent a good idea as they dent and fold rather easily.

*ding ding ding* Correct! The ZR9000 Trek frames have stuuupidly thin tubes.

However, thats not to say you couldnt have the same weight frame (same thickness tubes) and make it 15% stronger :D (compared to whatever industry standard aluminium is... id guess at 6061).

Probably not cheap. Thats my guess.

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Probably not cheap. Thats my guess.

Im with you there, look at Ti for a start, its 3 times (i think?) lighter than steel and costs a hell of a lot more. Then youve got this ZR9000 alloy, which will probably cost more than Ti.

Now if a Ti frame costs £1000, then how much would a ZR9000 frame cost?

Edited by Hobnobs
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Im with you there,  look at Ti for a start, its 3 times (i think?) lighter than steel and costs a hell of a lot more. Then youve got this ZR9000 alloy, which will probably cost more than Ti.

Now if a Ti frame costs £1000, then how much would a ZR9000 frame cost?

Ti is actually not as expensive as people think, however it requires far more advanced techniques to join it and so these techniques and larger numbers of scrap frames due to the difficulty of welding Ti push costs high. For applications where the Ti doesnt need welding i believe it isnt actually that much more expensive.

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i dont think the zr9000 that trek use for there top of the range XC bike would be that ideal for trials, as adam said, firstly they tubes are thin, and by this i mean uber thin, secondly its a very expensive material to put together, im unsure exactly on the method of construction but it is expensive, however i wouldnt think it were as expensive as titanium to put otgether.

i would say that zr9000 is a good tubing material for frames, however there are reasons why companies use certain materials for certian bikes. for example the stresses and forces applied to a trials bike is very different from say DH or XC. So as ZR9000 tubing was designed for lightweight XC bikes i think it should stay that way, with XC bikes.

cheers

ben

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righty guys, was having a chat with my boss at work, and a trek rep today on the phone, basically ZR9000 would be a great material for trials, its super dent resistent, very light, and uber strong, i know im contradiciting my first post, but this is a confirmation of facts now.

However, trek and gary fisher, are the only people who are allowed to use this material, must be their design (trek own gary fisher) and the base material, Zinc i think it is, is super for frame building, however the downside. expensivio, not so much as ti, but still very expensive to manufacture and as trek dont make any trials bikes, i cant see it happening anytime soon for trials frames.

anyway, thought i woulc confirm something

cheers

ben

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I'm not sure if anybody has spotted this yet... but ZR9000 it Treks own brand.

It's a kind of composite - and I'm not sure you'd be able to get hold of it very easily?

However as has been said, sure the frames on the treks are thin as they are designed for xc... So why not use this metal with thicker tubes and then still have an equally light frame but very strong.

Meh, dunno whats wrong with steel though myself :unsure:

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Officially, ti is supposed to be 60% of the weight of steel, and 6 times as strong, but has a nice springly-like flex property like steel, with high fatigue resistance. That should make it a much better material for trials than any of these materials, however because it would be made with such thin walls, it would dent easily. So if they were made with thicker walls, although they would be harder to dent, they would be hugely unneccesarily strong and expesive, seeing as the material is expensive and much harder to make frames out of.

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having a chat with a trek rep today on the phone, basically ZR9000 would be a great material for trials, its super dent resistent, very light, and uber strong

Well they would say that :unsure:

Basically, you can have a frame thats lighter than standard alloy but dents easily, or the same weight as a standard alloy frame but stronger.

I very much doubt Trek would make a trials frame, it would be such a tiny insignificant part of their sales!

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