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Cracked Titanium Frame - What Now?
Hello, I just realized my Litespeed Ultimate titanium frame has a crack on the weld where the bottom bracket meets the non-driveside chainstay. I bought it for the parts and the frame never fit me, so not a great personal loss, but what does one do with a cracked titanium frame? Can it be salvaged in any way? Thanks in advance for suggestions.
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...bf3e13d4_c.jpg https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...c159248c_c.jpg |
Perhaps this might fit better on the frame builder thread??
I believe welding titanium is a very specialized field. |
https://www.stevepottsbicycles.com/our-story.html
I met Steve Potts at a swap meet. He says he does titanium repairs. |
Could try taking it to a litespeed shop and seeing if a warranty is possible even though it sounds like you aren't the original owner they still might try since that looks like a real defect. It might get you a newer, better fitting frame or at least something you can sell for a better fitting frame. Otherwise scrap it or trash it. Fixing it won't be cheap especially adding in shipping 2 ways if nothing is closer. Could take the same cash to ebay and end up with a similar frame that fits.
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I bought a titanium frame with a small crack in its head tube for a few bucks. I've been riding it now for about a year, with no issues. My repair was fairly involved, but here is what I would suggest:
Drill the ends of the crack with a small drill -- something like 1/8" or 2mm. That often stops the spread of a stress crack. It's a proven technique in aeronautics. That may be all you need to ride it for years. Of course, this isn't your size, so that doesn't seem like what you want to do, and buyers won't be stoked to see a crack terminating in two holes. There hasn't been much marketing hype around that concept, despite the fact that it does make the frame slightly lighter. Anyway, I went further with my frame and used a very special epoxy that Serotta uses to bond carbon fiber to titanium and laid up carbon on the inside of the headtube -- about the same thickness as the tubing itself, which was actually quite thin, maybe 1 mm. I used an expansion bag and inflated it to compress the carbon. That sounds complex, but in simpler terms, it was a bicycle tube that I inflated to 40 psi. If you want to get rid of the frame, don't trash it -- definitely sell it for a few bucks with the crack pictured well. Welding is the best solution, but as others mentioned, it's expensive if you're not set up to do it yourself, and few are. Other strange people like me would be happy to try to gin up a solution to ride it. |
[QUOTE=WGB;21538138]Perhaps this might fit better on the frame builder thread??
Good point. C&V is my go-to, so went here first. |
Originally Posted by ljsense
(Post 21538270)
I bought a titanium frame with a small crack in its head tube for a few bucks. I've been riding it now for about a year, with no issues. My repair was fairly involved, but here is what I would suggest:
Drill the ends of the crack with a small drill -- something like 1/8" or 2mm. That often stops the spread of a stress crack. It's a proven technique in aeronautics. That may be all you need to ride it for years. Of course, this isn't your size, so that doesn't seem like what you want to do, and buyers won't be stoked to see a crack terminating in two holes. There hasn't been much marketing hype around that concept, despite the fact that it does make the frame slightly lighter. Anyway, I went further with my frame and used a very special epoxy that Serotta uses to bond carbon fiber to titanium and laid up carbon on the inside of the headtube -- about the same thickness as the tubing itself, which was actually quite thin, maybe 1 mm. I used an expansion bag and inflated it to compress the carbon. That sounds complex, but in simpler terms, it was a bicycle tube that I inflated to 40 psi. If you want to get rid of the frame, don't trash it -- definitely sell it for a few bucks with the crack pictured well. Welding is the best solution, but as others mentioned, it's expensive if you're not set up to do it yourself, and few are. Other strange people like me would be happy to try to gin up a solution to ride it. |
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