Ti frames?

[Bearbonesnorm]

Is it just me or does there seem to be an awful lot of Ti frames developing cracks?

I never recall Ti stuff cracking in the past. Perhaps it's just the recent upsurge in the number of Ti frames out there ... so as a percentage it's no worse than it ever was. It was reading about Aidans cracking whilst racing the TD that set me thinking.

[didnothingfatal]

I thought the same too, I always thought a Ti bike was for life, at that price for a few tubes! Maybe steel isn't so bad. I'm more inclined to believe that quality of the tubing has gone downhill, wasn't the ti in days gone by and byproduct of the soviet defence program?

[valleydaddy]

Steel it's the future - for big lads definately

[Bearbonesnorm]

I did see a comment on the web saying that Ti was fine for something like the TD because Aidan was able to get his repaired. In the back of my mind, I'm wondering if steel would have cracked in the first place?

[didnothingfatal]

Well I've just finished building my new STEEL frame :)

[Bearbonesnorm]

And what kind of Salsa would that be then DNF?

[didnothingfatal]

A green one with proper sized wheels, no clown wheels for me! Went mad, and plummeted for a Ala Carte and a Cro Moto Fork, although currently sat with it on suspension fork, I'll swap them about.

[Ian]

My Soda developed a crack the seatstay, around the disc tab. Something to do with over heating the tube when welding it I recall. Replaced under warranty no problems at all. All credit to Cotic actually - they arranged for my old frame to be collected and I had a new one within 8 days, total.

As a serial ti-frame owner, I've recently checked my Pegasus for cracks too. All fine, but I wondered how much more stress there is on the frame from bikepacking? Of the two ti frames I know of recently that have cracked, both were used for exactly that. Would be interested to know where Aidan's cracked though.

[Aidan]

It might be more accurate to point the finger at race frames rather than Ti as a material. If you're trying to push the envelope on light-weight and a zingy ride, durability might be hard to achieve at the same time.

BTW I saw another cracked Ti frame on the Divide (I won't say who it belonged to).

[didnothingfatal]

Don't believe that about race frames, when I was drag racing we put a ti subframe on a chassis took horrendous power and never failed. I'd go with poor quality ti being lightened thinned down too mch to make the race frame alongside poor heat management during the weld.