Located in Bellevue, Washington,
Obtainium Performance is a fairly new and small company who is dedicated to manufacture high performance Titanium springs. If you are looking at dressing up your new
RockShox Vivid in shiny Titanium – Obtainium Performance Products is your only option. But rest assure, their springs also work with other high end dampers.
Obtainium Performance Products designed their system so you can adapt their springs to fit most high end shock by simply using a set of Performance Adapters. Their
springs free length (6”/152.4 mm) is designed to fit 2.5, 2.75 and the 3.00 inch stroke shocks. For instance, the 3.00 stroke titanium spring will fit the RockShox Vivid 2.5 and 2.75 but will also fit the RockShox Vivid 3.00 with the aid of a space adapter. So say you purchased an Obtainium Performance spring you may use it from bike to bike because in most cases the titanium spring will out last the equipment. Not only does the Performance Adapters and spacer ad in the fitting of your titanium spring but it also facilitate optimal spring performance.
My Obtainium Performance springs showed in a box packed like it was filled with fragile crystal. Best packing job I’ve seen in a while! Needless to say, right off the get go they made a good first impression!
Mounting an Obtainium Performance spring on a RockShox Vivid 2.5 will require a bit more work as you’ll need to slightly compress the spring to get the tight fitting spring collar on. I ran into this while mounting a 400# Obtainium Performance spring on my 8.5” x 2.5 “ RockShox Vivid. Installing the spring my 3” stroke RockShox Vivid was a piece of cake.
The 400# Obtainium Performance spring came in at exactly 321g.
216 x 63.5 mm (8.5 x 2.5) RockShox Vivid 5.1As the spring is being compressed if the ends aren’t free to rotate the spring will tend to bind and buckle. Obtainium Performance adapters are made from Delron, and with a low coefficient of friction it helps the coil rotate under compression. This way the spring isn’t restricted and able to perform and rotate freely.
Performance Space Adapters weigh between 18g (for the RockShox Vivid Space Adapter) and 20g ( for Other Space Adapter) each.
240 x 76 mm (9.5 x 3.0) RockShox Vivid 5.1Obtainium Performance uses aerospace grade titanium that is made here in America. 3-8-6-4-4 Beta-C titanium is specially made for springs unlike China grade titanium. They use the same processes that are required by the aerospace industry (like Boeing). The material and processes used in the manufacturing of titanium springs are inherently costly and unavoidable. Example, all Obtainium Performance springs are hand crafted and unlike steel springs that are heat treated or stress relieved for 15 minutes; the titanium springs are heat treaded for many hours and a very high temperature under a vacuum for memory. Then the springs must go through a rigorous finish process to insure the proper mechanical properties. As you can guess, the costs of titanium springs are not going to change anytime soon. The learning curve in manufacturing titanium springs is rather severe as a result not many spring companies are willing to take this high cost venture.
RockShox Vivid 5.1 on IronHorse SundayTo insure that their titanium springs will out last other titanium springs, Obtainium Performance cycle test their springs to assure the spring you'll end up buying will not fail while using it. Out of each new material batch or lot they will cycle test one spring (soon to be featured on there website). Every time they purchase a new roll of material it comes with a traceable certification. They cross check the certification lot number and if the lot numbers are different from the previous run they will then cycle test a spring out of that new material. This is required in the aerospace industry and they find it important to do so in this industry.
Now you might be thinking “Titanium springs can fail?”. Under the right circumstances yet rare yes a titanium spring can fail. If you are welding near your bike make sure you remove the titanium spring because a spark will destroy your spring forever. Try not to nick your spring because a small nick can cause it to brake under use, this is one reason why the springs are powder coated for a little extra security. Just take care of your investment and it will take care of you.
By using Obtainium Performance Titanium springs you can save a considerable amount of weight. For example, the stock RockShox Steel 300x3.0 spring weighs around 468g while the
Obtainium Performance spring + one Space Adapter is 277g. Weight for the spring alone is 259g.
300x3.0 RockShox Steel Spring300x3.0 Obtainium Performance Titanium SpringObtainium Performance might be a new company, but they are doing everything they possibly can to accommodate the riders that have that odd situation where their spring doesn’t meet their need. They are actively reading of their emails, answering their phone and taking note of your special needs. As they grow, Obtainium Performance will do the best they can to meet your special needs. Keep an eye on their web site for news updates and available products.
Speaking of not meeting needs - I did run into one issue. I tried mounting the 400# spring on an 8.5 x 2.5 Marzocchi Roco using two Obtainium Space Adaptors, and unfortunately it did not fit. With the addition of the space adapters, the overall free length of the spring ended up being too long. Just something to be aware of.
I would like to thank Jim@Obtainum for the samples and taking the time to answer all my questions.
WWW.OBTAINIUMPERFORMANCEPRODUCTS.COM
