Seven - A story of happiness, love and sorrow

Let me answer the first, inevitable question. I'm 6'7.

I don't often find bikes in my size coming up for sale, let alone custom titanium frames in my exact geometry. It turns out miracles do happen and a Seven Axiom was posted on eBay, and it was a perfect 65cm/59cm farm gate of a miracle. I watched. I waited. I bid. I WON!!

The frame, built up with my components

The past couple months we've spent over 2,000 km smashing plenty of climbs, segments and cakes together

After seeing an almost identical frame on sale in Sigma Sports I decided the tired decals were due a refresh. This weekend I set about removing the decals.

Then, my dream was shattered. Whilst removing the down tube decal, I found filler. Lots of filler

I slowly proceeded to remove the filler (and tears from my cheeks)

What do people think, is it terminal? Can it be repaired?

Well it's lasted the last 2,000km without complaint but maybe worth getting it checked out by your most local Ti wizard?

Also; eBay seller is a turd and ought be reported as such. Selling a damaged frame with a sneaky cover up is a dick move.

eBay seller is a turd and ought be reported as such.

I don’t disagree but @pjhobs save yourself the bother, eBay won’t give a fuck.

Might be worth naming and shaming here or in the bad traders thread so others can avoid dealing with him though.

Can't see any images. I think your Google Photos are set to private.

Thanks both, problem is I don't know who's fault it was. The guy I bought the bike from (John) wasn't the original owner (he was clearly not tall enough) but he had the geometry/order form with the original owner's name (Keith).

I've sent John an email asking if he knew about the dent.

Sorry about that, think I've fixed it.

uiiii sneaky paintjob.... sorry for the find...
youv spent 2000km together without issues so... maybe all good!? i would take it to a bike shop just in case!

Strange place for that sort of thing. Is the paint original or added later?
Possibly an overexcited clamping in a workstand or over- heated tubing when putting in the bottle bosses?
From what little I know:
Ti is pretty resilient. I’ve mostlynseen cracks at seams.
The predominant direction of forces on that zone should not be in the weakest direction of the defect.
If it was the first and a compressive damage, I’d be quite concerned, as that could introduce a significantly larger area of weakness surrounding the visible defect.
If the second, seven would have some questions to answer...

Gutted for you mate, have you reached out to Seven to ask or taken to Sigma who are presumably a dealer to ask their opinion?

I assumed it was crash damage, or perhaps the frame was dropped. John (who I bought it off) replaced the forks as he thought they were too twitchy, makes me wonder if the ones he got with the frame weren't original...

Thanks mate, yeah, gutted.

I already had an email conversation with Sigma discussing decals, I've asked what they think of the damage, awaiting a reply.

They'll always err. on the side of caution, or simply tell you to bin the frame.

Personally, I'd ride it, just keep an eye on the offending area, and bin it if it starts to crack.

Seven's not exactly so popular that you can buy replacement decals from third parties online, and they would have needed to pay for custom ones capable of covering up the filler? Concerted attempt to hide damage. What a fucking cunt of a seller, whomever it was. Even if you can still ride it, the resale value is zilch.

or maybe John replaced the forks because they were damaged in an accident that also damaged the seat tube?

cut downtube at ~10cm from both ends, bond in a carbon tube, ride away into the sunset.

This was my initial thought, too 😬

@pjhobs
seen this?
https://www.lfgss.com/conversations/133159/?offset=250#comment14347524

Sorry, do you mean https://www.lfgss.com/comments/14326558/ ? If so, yes thanks, pretty close to me, may give them a shout depending on forum thoughts. Thanks.

No I meant to reference the guy on that thread who used a stem and spacers to smooth a dent

Ahh, yeah. Tube is too wide for that method, but even if it wasn't I'd be too worried about making it worse

Good luck, that's a complete fucker.

you can get frame tube blocks to roll out dents in tubes, but not sure it would work in this case as the dent looks like it's in line with the bottle bosses. potentially you could remove the bottle boss and reinsert one after rolling?

Don't know whether that would work with ti tubes. I would speak to the guy Vince linked or ride as is!

I'd try to machine a half circle of wathever the seat tube inside is and then try to push it with a bolt on the bottle cage against the dent. But ask someone who understands about fixing frames first

i think the dent is on the downtube...