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...

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/284944878596

 

[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.