Sad news

[Twister]

I was cleaning my Torus this evening when I got home and discovered a crack 60% around the seat tube about 1" above the bottom bracket.

Does anyone know if this sort of thing can be repaired (welded?) or have any suggestions of where.

Thanks
Matthew

 

[raidan73]

Can't help with advice on the welding but sounds like it was lucky you noticed it when you did!

 

[jimo746]

Torus? as in an RSP? depends what the tube is made of I guess, does the frame have a Ti main triangle?

 

[mattr]

Aren't all the toruses (Torii?) welded titanium?

If it is, a fair of them did that, either at the front mech boss, a bottle cage boss or similar.
I had one go. And I know of a handful of others.

 

[Tad]

Enigma are very highly regarded for Ti manufacture and repair, their repairs that I have seen certainly look very neat.

I have heard mixed reviews about Vernon Barker, his repair work that I've seen pics of looks far more agricultural.

 

[Twister]

Yes, it's an all titanium welded frame. I didn't know they were prone to failure though.

Gutted, but glad I spotted it when I did.

 

[Twister]

Enigma are very highly regarded for Ti manufacture and repair, their repairs that I have seen certainly look very neat.

I have heard mixed reviews about Vernon Barker, his repair work that I've seen pics of looks far more agricultural.

Cool, thanks for that. I'll see what can be done.

 

[PurpleFrog]

This might help:

http://www.thefabricator.com/article/ar ... an-weld-it

Something to consider:

- it sounds like this is a common problem for these frames

- a weld will be less strong than the orginal tube

- the stress hotspot will still exist

...For these reasons, my understanding is that frame repairers prefer to replace tubes when possible. Failing that, you might want a sleeve fitting around the weld.

 

[ishaw]

Enigma. They re-repaired the bottle boss bolts on my ti dbr after Colourtech botched them by pushing them through, filling the down tube with expanding foam to hide their crime, and fitting new bosses. Initially they thought they would struggle to get the foam and old bosses out of the down tube, but they did a fantastic job.

Off to check my torus for cracks now. Was it a general problem or limited to a year/frame type?

Thankfully mine looks solid.

 

[ishaw]

Can I ask a cheeky question. Any chance of a pic of the seat post clamp area on your frame, specifically the cut out. Trying to work out if mine has been tightened too much by previous owner or whether by design the cut out is straight up and down or tapers towards the top. Want to avoid stressing it and to make sure it has the right sized post/shim.

Cheers and sorry to hear about your alarming find.