equipment:
more pictures:
http://www.sandsmachine.com/bp_chery.htm

THE "CHERRY TITANIUM" Road and ATB models

Designed from the ground up to be the highest quality titanium bicycle on the market! Built from 3/2.5 titanium tubing and 6/4 titanium machined fittings. Oversized design for stiffness and efficiency. Frames are buffed for a dazzling finish.

After extensive research done through many resources available to us, we have drawn the conclusion that titanium might possibly be the best, cost is no object material for a bicycle frame developed yet. We drew upon our extensive pool of resources including Purdue University, one of the top engineering schools in the country and Alcoa, whose Lafayette plant extrudes most of the aluminum tubing used in the bicycle industry including Easton tubing. Because of Indiana's central location and long history of auto racing, we have many racing shops located nearby. Good engineering to us is not just finding the strongest material but selecting the best material for a particular application by comparing all the mechanical properties and selecting the best material based on the criteria of a particular application. In some applications fatigue strength is of greater importance than ultimate tensile strength.

Titanium is a very peculiar metal for which there is only limited applications. Where it works well is in applications that require a high degree of corrosive resistance, and applications where elasticity with a high degree of fatigue resistance is necessary such as springs. Which brings us to the bicycle frame. In our opinion a bicycle frame should be stiff enough to be energy efficient but compliant enough to be comfortable to ride. We believe that to a large extent frame flex, particularly in a vertical axis is the suspension of a bicycle. So believing that it is ok to allow the bicycle frame to have some give to it, the material that you build the frame out of should have a high degree of fatigue strength. Look in any racing engine and we bet you'll find titanium valve springs.

Titanium is a fairly machinable and weldable material. Our greatest hurdle was the availability of titanium frame building components. All of the parts you seldom think about were very limited in availability, i.e. braze-ons, drop outs, bottom brackets, and head tubes. There are only a couple of actual manufacturers of titanium component parts and we were not satisfied with the quality of the components that were available. So we set about developing the highest quality frame building components possible. We are doing the complete job ourselves – titanium components and frames.