Nooo! Cracked chainstay on Litespeed Saber Ti - repair options?

So I have been looking forward to building up a new (to me) frame for ages, finally got all the bits and was fiddling with the rear derailleur when I noticed what looked like a little scratch....on closer inspection turned out to be a huge crack on both sides of the tube....can't believe I havent noticed it before! It does follow the natural contours so i guess it was hidden in the reflections.....Turned out to be hard to take pictures of it (stupid camera with auto focus always seems to pick something else it finds more interesting in the current mess of my room).

Its a 2006 or so Litespeed saber frame. Anyone know whether this could be repaired or am I stuffed?

Thanks!

So sad. I guess you need some one who can weld titanium and they are not on every street corner. Best go to a specialist frame builder or I suggest your first port of call will be Lightspeed themselves. They will hardly want a reputation of their frames cracking and may be prepared to do something for you or offer a deal on a new one. After all the frame is not that old and Van Nicholas, for example, offer a life time guarantee.
Alternatively investigate prices for scrap titanium !
Let us know how you get on.

Maybe try calling enigma? They offer a repair service for their frames. They might do other manufacturer frames too?

Vernon Barker does Ti frame repairs.

Yes that can certainly be repaired. A decent welder will grind out the crack (ouch!) and round it off at either end to make sure it doesn't spread further. Then it can be mig/tig welded back together and the weld can be dressed back to match up flush with your original finish.

The jubilee hose clip is a nice idea, but it won't stop the chainstay from bending itself in two sadly :(

I would suggest you strip the bike down so you've just got the frame handy, then call in on a local fabrications workshop and have a chat with them about it. If you're not happy with the sound of them take it elsewhere and get the second opinion...

hu, looks like (cheaper) rolled sheet>tubing rather than the preferred cold drawn (am I missing something here, thought anything decent/Ti would have been cold drawn!). Hence there would be a seam from where it was machine welded before the mftr got ahold of it; and looks like that seam has opened up

I kept looking and looking at the pictures, to no avail... Then this^ post made me look for a seam ... and suddenly I get the massive thing I thought was a reflection is something else. Yikes!

Me too! And the other stay will be exactly the same

litespeed frames after the lynskey family sold the business have a reputation for not being quite so good. the manufacture went from in the USA as a family business to being outsourced. there are lots of threads about their warranty issues on other fora, eg MTBR

however this caused such a backlash that they seem to have improved on this, so you may wish to see if you can get the original owner to contact them on your behalf, as originally they came with a lifetime warranty

though this does not look too great

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/psa-the-sad-reality-of-a-liftime-frame-warranty

Ted James is working with titanium, maybe give him a try if you're still looking at repair options? Sound guy and great frame builder, am sure he'll help if he can.

http://www.tedjamesdesign.com/contact/

Vernon Barker does Ti frame repairs.

I used him to add cantilever brake mounts to a Ti frame of mine. For £50 he did a great job and I'd use him again.

Canadian are you in Oxford? If you are still stuck and nearby I could tig weld it for you one afternoon (I'm ok at welding http://www.lfgss.com/thread79611.html#post2697917) or get the guy who taught me to do it (he's very good and welded a lot of Ti in the past).

Canadian are you in Oxford? If you are still stuck and nearby I could tig weld it for you one afternoon (I'm ok at welding http://www.lfgss.com/thread79611.html#post2697917) or get the guy who taught me to do it (he's very good and welded a lot of Ti in the past).

Nice!

Sorry for jumping in but I have a question for you. I've TIG welded aluminium in the past and got fairly good at it. Is Ti much harder? Are there any special provisions for it?

Yes, Ti is harder.

Reasons are here;

http://www.weldcraft.com/2008/10/tig-welding-titanium-tubing/

Whoa, thanks for all the responses! The forumenger I bought it off has kindly refunded me the full amount I paid, but he may well be looking for options. He has apparently already used Vernon Barker (i think) who he also says is very good.

Main issue for me going for refund over repair was not really being able to trust the rest of the frame post repair, as it seems like a funny place to crack. So I will be trying my luck with another Ti frame off here and hoping that I can get some good years out of it!

Nice!

Sorry for jumping in but I have a question for you. I've TIG welded aluminium in the past and got fairly good at it. Is Ti much harder? Are there any special provisions for it?

Hovis, Ti's only harder because you have to prepare carefully and buy Ti welding rods, if you are good at TIG'ing alloy then its just a case of getting used to how ti puddles and moves along compared to aluminium and practice.

Yes, Ti is harder.

Reasons are here;

http://www.weldcraft.com/2008/10/tig-welding-titanium-tubing/

Hovis, Ti's only harder because you have to prepare carefully and buy Ti welding rods, if you are good at TIG'ing alloy then its just a case of getting used to how ti puddles and moves along compared to aluminium and practice.

Good to know, thanks. I don't have access to welding kit anymore but I plan on tooling up at some point. Im generally not the best when it comes to prep work, usually choosing to just dive in and go for it. But it sounds like one must be very diligent with Ti. Thanks

I had a summer job, thanks to nepotism, at a company that fabricated oil and gas equipment who quite often had to build in titanium. They had around 75-100 welders but only one was trusted with the ti stuff as he was extremely thorough and paid great attention to the details. The rest used to fuck it up too often to be trusted.