| The VeloBase.com History of Teledyne Titan |
| The manufacturer was a southern California based aerospace firm named "Teledyne'. Teledyne was based in Gardena, CA, where they specialized in working with exotic metals like titanium which required special processes to fabricate frames. It is a little known rumor that the bike division was formed as a way of obtaining titanium during the cold war years of the early 1970s. Russia is where all the titanium was at and they were not about to send military grade titanium to the USA for them to make weapons with, but bicycles was another story. The US got the titanium and the bicycle part of the company promptly died but managed to win several races. Multiple national cycling champion Ron Skarin won a Red Zinger stage and the Tour of Sommerville twice on a Teledyne Titan and Pete Penseyers won the Race Across America (RAAM) on one. The history of the Teledyne would not be complete without mentioning Barry Harvey (a British cycling champion, who emigrated to Canada), who was the first to introduce his titanium frame technology to the cycling community at the US Grand Prix in 1972. Soon after this he worked out a deal with a California aerospace company to go into the bike frame manufacturing business. The Teledyne Titans were actually made from commercially pure titanium which is not as strong as the current 3/2.5 (aluminum/vanadium) alloy blend. The commercially pure metal was easier to work with than the harder alloys. In 1975, Teledyne was producing frames for the North Hollywood Wheelman team. |
