2_i 

Uh-huh... Staying in Japan, having glasses with Ti Nikon frame. The frame cracks on the eve of a hike up Mt Fuji. Given the conditions expected there, fog, hale, wind blown volcanic ashes, I better have full visual capabilities and need to fix the frame right away. When I had a similar problem with an SS frame, it was fixed in half an hour in the first place off the street I stopped at. OK I step into an optical shop favored by my host. It turns out that to fix the Ti frame it needs to take the route: Japan optical shop -> my US optical shop -> US distributor for Nikon -> Nikon in Japan -> US distributor for Nikon -> my US optical shop -> Japan optical shop. There is no way around it. When I bought the glasses I did not know that it was Nikon - it even had some French sounding name. I did not know I needed to care where the frame was made. I swallowed the cost of buying new glasses with an SS frame and never ever again touched Ti - incidentally the Ti frames are too fragile for me in the first place, hence the breaking just due to use. (The SS one breaking was from a skiing accident.)

Back to bike frames, later in the week I pick up my Brompton from frame repair - the so-called ears started to bend down due to rough use.