WTF? Cracking Ti frame.

[M_Chavez]

I was going to put in a cheeky £20 bid to get this for my kids, drill a stop hole & wrap some CF around the headtube, but the price jumped to over £100 delivered already, and there's 4 days to go.

WTF?! For a cracked frame? I think the look of brushed ti surfaces just messes with people's brains...

Spa touring bike frame titanium cracked head tube 48cm Repairable? | eBay

<p>Spa titanium touring bike frame with a crack in the head tube as seen in the pictures not sure if it’s repairable but might be of some use to somebody. Other than the cracked head tube it’s in excellent condition and all threads are perfect. </p><br /><p>•26” wheel</p><p>•1 1/8...

www.ebay.co.uk

 

[grantoury]

100 is a lot for a garden gate

 

[M_Chavez]

Titanium garden gate mind you.

Maybe somebody knows something we don't... Golden treasure hidden in them tubes?

 

[grantoury]

Titanium garden gate mind you.

Maybe somebody knows something we don't... Golden treasure hidden in them tubes?

must be

 

[eric_james]

What would your kids do with it Chav? more importantly is it repairable?

 

[M_Chavez]

Ride around the block - I do think this is easily repairable for light use. If I saw one at the side of the road, I'd stop to pick it up, maybe even pay a couple tenners for one.
Build up a 1.5-2mm thick ring of cf around the top cup and you're good to go imho.

But if you forger for a moment that it's Titanium then it really belongs at a metal recycling centre.

 

[eric_james]

You must have big kids, that's a 19" frame
What's CF? Couldn't it be TIG welded?

 

[M_Chavez]

Good point - it's 53cm ett, not 48 (that's ST)
But if you hybridise it and run flat bars with a short stem instead of 13cm stem and drops, you get a bike that fits a much shorter rider.

No idea about welding - good luck finding anyone who can weld ti. A carbon fibre ring should keep this in place I would have thought.
A jubilee clip would probably be just as good tbh...

 

[eric_james]

Bodge it up
I thought TIG could weld titanium

 

[M_Chavez]

I have no metallurgy knowledge of welding experience (I can solder some electrical components onto a pcb) but I'd think that a weld or its edges will be the weakest point that might fail again? I.e. It won't be stronger than the original tube [that failed already]?

If you sleeve the tube in a self-sufficient cf ring, it shouldn't fail unless the cf ring fails. And I don't see why it would, given the number of people riding plastic-fantastic framesets. So rough up the surface, stick a pilot into the tube, clamp (or jubilee clip - strictly no gaffer tape!) the tube from the outside and wrap some cf tow to make a sleeve around it. Wait for it to cure. Can even polish this turd and cover with some lacquer to make it look a bit better. Don't forget to remove the clamp.

Welding or sleeving, the head tube will look fugly and it will be a "broken" frame, so I'm surprised to see people willing to pay over £100 for frame alone.

Usual caveats: It's your teeth, don't do this at home without responsible adult supervision, etc.