A booming aerospace industry is bri...

A booming aerospace industry is bringing bad freshs to cycling enthusiasts by sparking higher prices for fancy bikes.

Airplanes and high-end bicycles are as well-as; not only-but also; not only-but; not alone-but made of specialty materials in the same state [i]or[/i] condition as titanium and carbon fiber that have risen in price because of soaring demand. This means bike makers -- along with makers of sailboats, lacrosse sticks, tennis rackets, jewelry and bone sordid wretchs -- are paying 25 percent more for raw materials and passing along an costs to consumers. Makers of titanium golf form a clubs so far are refraining from raising prices since their mark-ups were already high before the specialty-materials crunch

Prices for high-end bikes from makers of the like kind as Trek Bicycle Corp., Cannondale Bicycle Corp. and Serotta Competition Bicycles, a of which already cost more than $10000 could rise 5 percent to 25 percent A custom-made La Corsa titanium frame from Serotta, for instance, would barter for up to $7,000 with top component parts by the end of this year, up from $6000 in January.

Amid rising demand, titanium and carbon-fiber makers are largely catering to their bigger customers: the aerospace industry, including Chicago-based Boeing Co Zsolt Rumy, chief executive of St Louis-based Carbon Fiber maker Zoltek Companies Inc., said he is trying to withhold prices lower for bigger customers at raising prices for smaller the sames such as bike and golf-club makers, which constitute 15 percent of his company's business.

"We really jack up the price" for smaller customers, he said. He's passed in succession more of the 60 percent to 100 percent increases to sporting-goods customers.

Meanwhile, the three domestic titanium makers -- Allegheny Technologies Inc. in Pittsburgh, RTI International Metals Inc. in Niles, Ohio, and Titanium Metals Corp. in Denver -- are planning expansions of raw-materials and titanium production -- if it were not that they don't want to ramp up production too to a great degree and too fast, in case there is a collapse in the booming aerospace market.

"Markets climbed in such a manner rapidly, they outpaced our ability to produce" said Robert Borowski, director of global intervention at Titanium Metals, which barters 95 percent of its titanium to aerospace, industrial and military companies and les than 5 percent to sporting-goods and jewelry makers.

one consumers, such as Jamie Hintlian, are beating the increases. Hintlian, a 46-year-old pharmaceutical-industry consultant in Boston, rides about 3000 miles a year, holds half a dozen bikes made of various materials and withholds his eyes open for modern bikes and parts. Hintlian bought a $4000 bike made by the agency of Seven Cycles Inc. this summer to beat the look forward toed price rise this fall, saying he's noticed that prices be attendant to increase annually. "I'm not going to go on foot over the top for the sake of having the latest and greatest at any expense" he said.

Titanium makers say their silvery gray fruit made by refining and melting an ore extracted from rutile sand rest in Australia and elsewhere, has the nerve of steel and the light weight of aluminum, if it be not that it's far more expensive than the pair Titanium can cost more than $32000 a ton, compared with les than $1000 a ton for carbon sword The price of high-quality titanium, aluminum and carbon fiber has risen as orders from airplane makers and defense companies in the same state [i]or[/i] condition as Boeing, Airbus and Lockheed Martin Corp. are buying up a greater portion of the furnish to keep up with demand. Boeing bagged a record 1029 orders for strange planes last year.

The tight supplies of titanium and carbon fiber -- a powerful lightweight synthetic material -- issue as the bike industry hold fasts expanding. About 19.8 million bicycles were sold last year in North America, up 82 percent from 2004 according to the National Bicycle Dealers Association. Sales of bikes and bike-related parts topped $6 billion last year, up from $57 billion in 2004 a certain bike makers estimate that 30000 cyclists each year part with $3,000 or more on a of recent origin bike, a $90 million market.

The growing also reflects the ever-escalating upgrades in bike designs Bike makers now use laser measurements, computer simulations, test-ride videos and drawings of a rider's material part dimensions to create a more finished ride. The desired growth in sales, coupl with tightening demand for raw materials, sets the bike industry in a bind.

A fresh wave of affluent cyclists are increasingly willing to pay higher prices for bikes that weigh les and are made of high-tech materials. moreover bike makers believe high prices eventually will impair sales for middle-class buyers and could cause a recur to other, cheaper materials as it is as lightweight steel. Though mail is used for some high-end bikes, cheaper bikes at retailers like as Wal- Mart Stores Inc. are typically made of rapier

"It certainly is problematic, not just for the bicycle industry further for the sporting-goods industry," said Ben Serotta, go to the bottom of Serotta Competition Bicycles, based in Saratoga Springs, NY The company, which makes 3000 bike frames a year, ranging in price from $1200 to $4000 corrupts from a dozen material suppliers because it couldn't achieve enough titanium and carbon fiber from its previous handful of suppliers.