Iride01 

I hope I never have a forever bike. Change is good!

79pmooney

But ... you can do those banded shifter bosses with no danger of corrosion so why weld?

Having said that, I have a "braze-on" for my top mounted DT Superbe shifter on my Ti Cycles. I'd have to ask but I don't think it is built with butted tubes and it is very stiff so I'm hoping to stay DT crack free. That is a single weld on top so that should change the likelihood of cracking but I don't know in which direction. (Bike's only got 18k miles so I probably have another 40k to sweat this! Favorite ti bike gets most of the ride time and has no DT "braze-ons" at all.)

I think this Extralight is just crying out for one of those couplers! Saw the DT at the crack. Clean up. Install coupler. Done! "Oh! You want to take the bike 'apart'?" That takes two and costs extra."

ImagineZH

Similar happened to me with my old steel frame a few years back, I was devastated!

Sy Reene

May sound naive, but at the time and thinking it would be a forever bike, reason for opting for the Cyrene over the Extralight was as much thinking it had to be a bit more robust since the frameset weight was about 270 grams heavier and had an identical geometry.

phughes

Just as I contemplate moving my bar ends to the downtube position on my touring bike. Okay, I may still do it.

phughes

I have a forever bike hanging in the garage. I hope it lasts my lifetime. As for change, that is what new bikes are for, no reason to get rid of the forever bike when you can add another forever bike.

indyfabz

That’s what I was going to say. You can always change back to the original forever bike. Like putting on that old pair of comfortable underwear you discovered in the bottom of a drawer.

georges1

Sorry for your loss. As much as I like titanium, I prefer a good high end steel frame or aluminium frame. The Croll frame is pretty.

veganbikes

If you look carefully at the bike the crack was actually some hidden carbon fiber that asploded. It would be tough to see on your phones or on lesser monitors but if you blow it up right you can see the crabons that exploded the titaniums.

indyfabz

😱 I looked at it on my large iMac and you’re correct.

Duragrouch

There's another thread going on speed wobble, I'll try to post in a sec, and someone mentioned a podcast on the subject, and darned if they didn't mention a Ti bike on a very fast downhill, got into serious speed wobble, was barely able to stop and sit down to calm down, and darned if there wasn't a crack exactly like you posted, across the top of the downtube spanning the shifter bosses. I think the severe speed wobble caused the crack, not vice versa, but not certain.

EDIT: Post #35, the Silca podcast, really long, like an hour, the Ti bike part is in there somewhere:

https://www.bikeforums.net/general-c...-danger-2.html

zymphad

The problem isn't the frame, it's the components and trying to find replacement parts. If not on hydraulic and electronic, soon the only used market will be available and at some point I would think that will get more difficult. So forever bike maybe not impossible, but PITA from this point forward as bike industry is extremely insistent on not allowing cyclists to have choices. I mean I can't recall if I have ever seen a bike with silver SRAM parts... not even the slightest amount of choices from SRAM now, electric hydraulic black only.

PeteHski

I don't recall having choices in the past. There was a time when everything had DT friction shifters and rim brakes. There was no choice. Things move on and you can't expect backward compatibility or legacy production forever. But if there is enough demand then the niche market will usually cover it.

georges1

You have the ability to buy new old stock parts even if it is expensive but everyone choses a different strategy . Not everyone is into electronic shifting running batteries , disk brakes or even 12-13 speeds. The niche market is having enough demand for nuovo record, c record, dura ace 7400/7700/7800 where prices skyrocketed. You can also find on ebay parts or entire groupsets that are new old stock that date from some years for sale. All is a matter of money for no more produced groupsets and their spare parts.

PeteHski

So we have more choices now than at any time in the past. If you want old gear it's out there, but it is not practical for the big manufacturers to keep producing it all forever. The bike industry is nothing special in that regard.

DaveSSS 

It's time to move on to a modern bike with electronic shifting, wider tubeless tires and disc brakes. I dig that four years ago. No regrets. The ride is so much better with far less tire pressure.

tomato coupe

... and I remember when all components were silver, i.e. there was no choice.

Trakhak

But that was as it should be, because silver is the only good choice. Science!

Kidding. As long as I can still go into any auto dealership and buy a car with chrome bumpers, I'm good.

tomato coupe

ftfy

icemilkcoffee 

nobody said you could only have one forever bike! Polygamy is allowed when it comes to forever bikes!

Duragrouch

Polyvelo. You heard it here first. Needs its own checkbox on the next census.

Smaug1

That's a shame, but I'm glad you found the crack before it caused you to crash.

The Croll is a lot better-looking bike anyway. Even so, I hope you ride it a lot and accept that it won't always be so pretty.

roadcrankr

Croll update:
Taking me awhile to acclimate to the stiff ride (relative to my Merlin Extralight).
Riding with lower pressures on the max size 30's the Croll accepts.
The Dura Ace 9100 clinchers always gave me a nice ride. I refuse to go tubeless, so nobody suggest that! lol
Thought of going to a saddle cushier than my Fizik Arione. Bring on any other ideas, please.
I love those Shimano downtube barrel adjusters. The old 90's version with the winged right-side one. Adjust on-the-fly!
My riding buddies came up with some blurbs:
- you sure riding slower. Did you go bar Crolling last night?
- you're making my skin Croll.
- quit slowing to a Croll.
The only worthy one for the Merlin was calling me a Wizard. Or, during a pitstop, the wizard's taking a wiz.

biker128pedal

Did you contact Merlin for repair or replacement? They currently advertise a lifetime warranty.

On the clamp on band type shifters mentioned. I had a steel frame bike with those. There was a small stop welded to the underside of the down tube. My frame cracked and broke there. This was back in the seventies.

roadcrankr

I did, but no reply yet. Hoping they can simply repair using two couplers.
The frame holds tons of sentimental value and would like to shoot for the warranty repair.
Maybe they could tack on cable guides to the head tube, since the couplers would install over the shifter bosses.