The best titanium road bikes combine a weight that's less than steel with strength that's greater than aluminium, making titanium one of the best – and most luxurious – frame materials.
While carbon fibre is clearly the material of choice for top racing frames, titanium is no slouch either when put to good use. Titanium might add some weight compared to the best carbon frames, but the ride quality is excellent, with a renowned smoothness over rough ground.
Beyond those enticing qualities, titanium also boasts excellent fatigue life, and thanks to its inherent corrosion resistance, can be left unpainted for a unique, elegant finish that will look as good in 25 years as it does now.
Titanium does have a reputation for being expensive, and that’s not undeserved, but if the prospect of a titanium frame is appealing, it’s worth taking into account the complete lifespan of a bike. If it lasts you the rest of your riding life, then the value proposition starts to look a lot better for titanium.
We’ve rounded up the best titanium road bikes as reviewed by the BikeRadar team.
Check out what to look for when buying a titanium bike at the end of this article.
Best titanium road bikes in 2024
Kinesis GTD V2
- £4,000 (as tested, international pricing N/A)
- Pros: Lovely frame with great kit; plenty of customisation options available
- Cons: Seatpost slippage
The Kinesis GTD V2 is an ultra-endurance, mile-munching machine, with rack and mudguard fittings and a third bottle cage mount.
Its disc-brake setup allows clearance for up to 34mm tyres, meaning you can comfortably fit big rubber, too. Cable ports let you run electronic or mechanical drivetrains.
Kinesis has tweaked the geometry of the V2 bike, making it sportier, but there's still a 71.5-degree head angle for stability on long rides. You can choose your own components, as the GTD V2 is a custom build.
Mason Bokeh Ti GRX Di2
- £6,195 (as tested, international pricing N/A)
- Pro: Lovely ride; great frame
- Cons: Slightly sluggish on the road; expensive
Technically a gravel bike rather than a road bike, the Mason Bokeh Ti mixes the capability for fast road riding with off-road competence. The frame tubes are shaped to perform different functions, rather than all being round, and there are 3D-printed titanium dropouts.
As with all Mason's bikes, there's a lot of choice of components, so you don't need to go with the 47mm 650b tyres fitted if you want a more road-going spec.
Reilly Gradient
- £3,249 (as tested, international pricing N/A)
- Pros: Awesome handling; beautiful frameset
- Cons: Gears needed adjusting
Built up with a selection of smart components, Reilly's Gradient is capable of tackling all kinds of on- and off-road adventures.
The frameset is the real star of the show though. As well as being stunning to look at, the Reilly Axis 'ultra-butted' tubing and frame angles imbue the bike with a lively ride that balances speed and comfort incredibly well.
As befits an adventure bike, it also has mounts for luggage, mudguards and a third bottle cage as standard. Reilly backs its workmanship with a lifetime warranty on the frame.
Reilly T325
- £3,798 (as tested, international pricing N/A)
- Pros: Fun and fast; wonderful ride quality
- Cons: Not as feathery as carbon at this price
The Reilly T325 is a titanium race bike with a semi-compact frame for added stiffness and an aggressively short head tube to help you get into a long and low position.
It’s not quite as light as an equivalent carbon race bike, but unless you’re only riding hill climbs or a real weight weenie, you probably won’t notice this, so good is the ride quality.
Reilly also offers a lifetime warranty on the frame.
Ribble Endurance Ti Disc
- £3,299 (as tested, international pricing N/A)
- Pros: A well-mannered ride; great value for money
- Cons: Mudguards don't shield you from everything
Ribble’s Endurance Ti is built from top-grade, seamless double-butted titanium and its silhouette closely resembles its carbon sibling.
Although it has endurance geometry, it's skewed more towards the sportier side of the spectrum, coming up a little longer in reach and a little lower on the head tube. It is a titanium bike designed with wet weather in mind, with eyelets for mudguards included.
With a mechanical Shimano Ultegra R8000 spec and Ribble’s own-brand components under its Level moniker, the Endurance Ti has an impressive ride quality. It glides over poor surfaces and it has lively handling.
Sabbath Mondays Child Mark II
- £2,880 (as tested, international pricing N/A)
- Pros: Fast, efficient frame; quality wheels and groupset
- Cons: Stiff
With its oversized head tube and bottom bracket, as well as a semi-compact frame design, Sabbath’s Mondays Child is stiff enough to race, with its confidence-inspiring geometry making it a particularly noteworthy descender.
Its high-stiffness does mean a little sacrifice in ride comfort, but the smartly specced tubeless-ready wheels and tubeless Schwalbe Pro One tyres soften the ride enough for all-day comfort.
The frame also comes with a lifetime warranty, so you needn’t worry about it lasting the distance either.
Sonder Colibri Ti Force 22
- £2,449 (as tested, international pricing N/A)
- Pros: Robust; versatile; great spec for the price
- Cons: Heavy wheels
The Sonder Colibri is a capable all-rounder that can handle gravel as well as smooth or smoothish tarmac.
It comes with internal cable routing and three bottle bosses. As well as SRAM Force 22, it's available in Rival 22 and Shimano builds.
There's enough frame clearance for 46c tyres in place of the fitted 32mm WTB Expanse tyres, or you could fit mudguards and a rack for commuting or touring duties.
Dolan ADX Titanium 105 Di2
- £3,100 as tested
- Pros: Agile handling; good spec; plush ride
- Cons: Coarse bottle boss threads
The Dolan ADX Titanium 105 Di2 is a top-quality, four-season bike with a competitive spec for the money.
It's a smooth-riding endurance bike with mounts for a rack and mudguards, but retains deft handling.
The sole issue we found was that one bottle boss bolt had a coarse thread that was aligned incorrectly. This is unlikely to be the case on most production bikes though.
Moots Vamoots Disc RSL
- $14,505 (as tested)
- Pros: Exquisite craftsmanship
- Cons: Very pricey
Sitting at the racier end of the spectrum, the Vamoots Disc RSL has stiff, oversized tubing and aggressive angles and fit, but still maintains that classic, smooth titanium ride quality the material is so prized for.
Unlike many small frame builders, Moots is able to incorporate modern manufacturing processes such as 3D printing (which is used to make the dropouts, for example) into its process. The result is a beautifully constructed titanium bike that blends the best of classic and modern production methods.
It all comes at a cost though – whether you spec it with the latest and greatest components or go for something more workmanlike, there's no getting away from the fact that this is a rather expensive bike, to say the least. If your pockets are deep enough though, you're unlikely to be disappointed.
Enigma Escape
- £3,888 (as tested, international pricing N/A)
- Pros: A versatile do-it-all machine; lots of mounting points
- Cons: Stock 31.6mm seatpost lacks give
Although technically a gravel bike, the Enigma Escape is a jack of all trades and can be used as a posh commuter bike or a long-distance tourer, no matter the terrain.
The frameset is packed with mounting points for mudguards or luggage. There is an optional C-Six ADV fork that contains triple mounts for further options.
Its geometry is reminiscent of an endurance road bike and is not particularly radical, and the ride feel is pleasantly damped, although the rear end is more firm with a fatter 31.6mm seatpost.
Spa Cycles Elan
- £2,180 (as tested)
- Pros: Comfortable, do-anything bike; old-school style
- Cons: Weighty
The Spa Cycles Elan combines smart, old-school styling and features such as external cable routing and a threaded bottom bracket, with modern touches including disc brakes and decent tyre clearance.
This reliable, do-anything bike will serve you well for a very long time, for audaxes and more.
The 10-speed Shimano 105 drivetrain (complete with a triple chainset for a true blast from the past) that came on our test bike is a little dated. But it performed admirably and Spa Cycles offers plenty of customisation options if it’s not to your taste.
Also consider…
Van Nicholas Yukon Disc
- £3,911 (as tested)
- Pros: Great handling; high-quality, customisable build
- Cons: Harsh rear end
Van Nicholas is a Dutch brand that has done more than its fair share to popularise titanium bikes – and for good reason. The Yukon Disc has a great frame that could be made to truly sing with a few different component choices (as on our test bike).
At 9.67kg including full-length mudguards, it’s pretty lightweight for a touring bike, and its 34t x 34t bottom gear ought to be low enough to winch you up steep pitches. Likewise, there’s very little flex from the frame, making it an efficient climber.
The slightly dropped seatstays might not appeal to the purists, but it’s a modern design touch that differentiates the Yukon Disc from its peers.
What to look for when buying a titanium bike
Frame geometry
Like any kind of bike, geometry plays a massive part in the way a titanium bike rides and handles, so you should ensure the bike you purchase matches the type of riding you intend to do on it.
Titanium bikes tend to be designed for long-distance riding, so the geometry will often be relatively relaxed, with a taller head tube, slacker angles and a longer wheelbase.
The slacker steerer angles and longer wheelbase aid stability and give a slightly slower, more deliberate response to steering compared to a twitchy race bike.
It also puts you in a more upright position, with less weight on your hands and less strain on your neck, shoulder and back muscles. You might have to sacrifice a little in aerodynamics, but over the course of a long ride across rough terrain the gains in comfort could pay dividends.
If you want to race or have a more aggressive position on the bike, you’ll be looking for a frame with a shorter head tube, steeper angles and shorter chainstays.
Versatility
The advent of disc brakes for road bikes has not only been great for slowing you down, but has opened up the possibility for manufacturers to build in much greater tyre clearance to bikes. Subsequently, many titanium road bikes now have clearance for up to 35mm road tyres.
This not only brings benefits in terms of comfort and potentially reduced rolling resistance, but it also has the potential to massively increase a bike's versatility, moving firmly into gravel bike territory.
This is ideal if, for example, you live in a country (such as the United Kingdom, where BikeRadar is based) where the road quality generally varies from bad to appalling.
Even if you prefer rim brakes, many modern rim brake calipers can accommodate up to 28mm tyres on wide rims, so it’s worth checking the frame and fork can handle that as well.
Longevity
A titanium bike is likely to cost a fair amount more than an equivalent carbon one, or the best aluminium or steel bikes, simply because the nature of the material makes it more difficult to construct frames and parts from.
Without going into too much detail, the machining, welding and finishing of titanium bikes are more labour-intensive processes that require specialist skills and equipment, compared to other frame-building materials. All of this increases production costs and, inevitably, these costs are passed on to the consumer.
However, where a titanium bike makes up for its initial cost is in longevity. It's an extremely resilient frame material, meaning titanium bikes can take a lot of knocks and punishment without trouble.
With that in mind, many manufacturers will offer a lifetime warranty on titanium frames to the original owner, giving you peace of mind that should you run into any production issues further down the line they’ll have you covered.
What about titanium gravel bikes?
Titanium's properties make it an excellent material for gravel bikes: it's more robust than carbon, lighter than steel with a similar ride feel and stronger than aluminium.
The cost of titanium does make the best titanium gravel bikes pretty expensive.
But since titanium doesn't corrode, manufacturers can leave the frames unpainted. The brushed-finish can look wonderful on a rugged gravel rig.
