Managed to put a dent, which appears also to have a slight crack in the down tube of my titanium frame (one of the new Orange Vit T2's). A rock spat up from under the tyres and hit the down tube a few inches above the bottom bracket. B*gger! The dent is quite small and shallow, but as the metal is so so thin, it looks like there's a small crack/crease in the middle of the dent.

Now I'm going to give Orange a call tomorrow to see what they say, but to ease (or worsen) my pain, thought I'd ask here if anyone had repaired similar? Or is it terminal? In terms of warranty etc, I'm not the original owner as I bought the frame off here. Think I may have just had a very expensive ride.

Accidental cover on your contents insurance?

I'll have to check my insurance terms. Not sure what cover I have regards accidental damage.

Anything can be repaired. Whether it is worth the cost is another matter as welding TI is a specialist skill IIRC.

Hi mate worth giving these guys a ring.

http://www.enigmabikes.com/index.html

They make ti frames here in the uk and have welded a new hanger on a frame i sold last year.
Helpfull and easy to deal ith.
Bat.

enigma bikes – titanium frame repairs

Once you have Oranges opinion about the state of the frameset…it could be worth contacting these people called Enigma (fomerly called Omega I think) who offer ti repairs … price don't look to severe either I have an old retro frame I've been considering sending to them for awhile…goodluck!

Eh?

UK designed and built mountain bike gets hit by rock and is seriously damaged?

Id be pretty confident Orange will do the right thing on this one – or am I being a bit naive here?

I mean its not totally unusual for your bike to be hit be flying rocks
Mine is often – the frame is cool but when they whack my shins it smarts a bit

Good luck!

EDIT: The above assumes it is new and not an oldie

Cheers guys. Will see what Orange say and then contact Enigma if necessary.
It's one of the new Vit T's, not an oldie. I bought the frame second hand (off here) so not sure what Orange's reponse will be.

I agree hitting rocks is par for the course. Difficult to say if the same rock would have had the same effect on other bikes. Just unlucky is my general feeling, but I guess the thiness of the tubes makes this sort of thing more likely.

I'll try and post a picture of the damage.

or am I being a bit naive here?

why do you think they should 'do the right thing'?
if i crash a new car by accident will the manufacturer buy me a new one?

Hopefully these will give an idea of the damage.

I'm certainly not expecting Orange to say they'll repair free of charge, but I'm hoping for a posiitve reponse in terms of that they will be able to repair or at least point me in the right direction of a repair. Alternatively the damage may not be that bad, although I fear it is.

That really sucks!

Blimey, must be very thin there for that sort of damage.
My old Merlin just scratches a bit and then gets a quick scrub up with a scourer

Not being picky, but which one was it, fair enough damage if you clouted it, but bit much if it was just a loose bit of flying shrapnel

A rock spat up from under the tyres

or

I agree hitting rocks is par for the course

Don't know much about Orange Ti frames, are they very pricy to buy new?

Reckon the UK repairer that was mentioned would be worth a try, might need a whole new tube from the looks of of it

Agh! doesn't look too good, I think Lynskey built the Vit frames for Orange, as I sold a few when was working in a shop.

Sorry for the confusion. It was a rock that spat up form under the tyres on a descent.

Didn't actually see the rock, but heard it. I guess a failry small projectile at high speed. Forgot all about it until I was washing the bike and came across the damage.

Not liking the idea of a whole tube replacement.

Not liking the idea of a whole tube replacement.

Probably the best solution though, bit hard to patch I would have thought and apart from unsightly not great from a structual angle

Right off mate! Send it to me and rather than chuck it on the scrap heap though 😆

MrSmith – Member
or am I being a bit naive here?
why do you think they should 'do the right thing'?
if i crash a new car by accident will the manufacturer buy me a new one?

Well unlike a car Id expect a mountain bike to get hit by a fair few rocks

Regularly

If it cant hack it and especially if its a fancy expensive Ti frame Id be a tad disappointed

Am I being unreasonable to expect a mountain bike to be able to take a bit of punishment?

Fit for purpose and all that etc etc etc

it's a hazard of mtb'ing you get rock strikes, if the rock is hard and pointy and you are going fast enough you will possibly get a dent or worse.
to make it dent proof it would no longer be a lightweight xc frame.
i don't see how it's the fault of orange that it is dented or why they are duty bound to do anything about it apart from perhaps a crash replacement at lower cost?

There's fit for purpose and there's fit for purpose. They don't warrant collision damage. And warranties only apply to the original owner. At Orange they are decent guys and I have had great service off them. I think if you go demanding things from them then you're being unfair, after all this is a second hand bike that has suffered freak damage. But if you're honest and open then you stand a better chance of help.

But as I said, anything you get from them is a bonus as you're not owed anything.

*if* it were me, and I desperatley wanted to keep the frame, I'd have the crack filled with weld and keep riding it with the dent in. Keep checking it regularly for crack's propogating from the dent. Its unlikely to go "boom" like carbon fibre could.

I've seen loads of people keep riding frames with dents in for years with no problems.

Cue getting flamed for condoning riding a frame with structural defect! 😉

Tube replacement would probably be un-economical IMO.

I suspect that the only safe solution here is going to be a new downtube. Having "looked around" for someone to modify my old Merlin I wouldn't let anyone in the UK have a go. The man to contact is Steve Potts. Unfortunately he's in Point Reyes, California. Just Google him to have a look at his website. He makes frames for Tom Ritchey himself, is an inductee of the Mountain Biking Hall of Fame, etc, etc. A true (Ti) frame building god. Unfortunately, unless you're planning on a holiday over there soon the postage alone is going to be quite pricey (estimate £100+ each way fully insured).

I'm sending you an email…

A bit of gaffer tape over that will be fine.

non fatal imo. ride it

"if i crash a new car by accident will the manufacturer buy me a new one? "

No, but he hasn't crashed it. If you buy a car that can't drive down the road without suffering damage, you'd return it.

so if you drive a car around for a year or so without problems then drive over a pothole or speedbump and you crack the sump is the car 'fit for purpose'?

the orange website recommends the bike for this type of riding:

so according to that it's not recommended for riding down hills 🙂

Lynskey have more or less cornered the market in Ti frames. Shame they're not more robust really.

I can't see the Orange being any more or less capable of taking a knock than a Ti 456 or, dare I say it, the new Soda?

to make it dent proof it would no longer be a lightweight xc frame.

^defines a main issue with high end bikes generally. with F1 technology comes F1 reliability.

sounds like you got (very) unlucky. Can you post a bigger image of the dent? It's difficult to see if the tube has been pierced. If the tube is not pierced then tbh I'd continue riding it. If it is pierced then the crack will almost certainly propogate

A guy I know had a Ti headtube replaced in the UK, cost 250 quid iirc so not cheap but much cheaper than a new frame. Down tube may not be as easy, depending on how special (butting etc) the one on there is

I don't think that's likely to fail any time soon, I'd just ride it.
If there is actually a crack, then stop drill the ends to stop it propagating any further.

If Enigma could guarantee making a decent job of it then I suppose that you could always get an open-ended gusset added from the BB shell.

I think the OP is just unlucky to get that dent.

Everyone seems to be ganging up on Mr Smith but he's right. This is accidental damage, not Orange's fault.

Mountain bikes are meant to be ragged. If people can't live with the fact their kit may get battle scarred, they should buy tougher kit.

My Honda is covered in stone chips after almost 3 years of driving it.

I'm afraid I don't know how to make the photo's bigger.
I really can't tell if there is a small split or not in the middle of the dent. There is certainly a crease, but not sure if it goes through.

I agree with the above comments that it's just one of those things. A hazard of mountain biking and a bit unlucky. I'm hoping Orange will say that the damage is just cosmetic and not to worry.

I've done this twice, once on a steel frame and once on an aluminium frame. Not that it helps now, but I wont ride off road these days without a nice inner tube on my down tube, takes all the sting out of those nasty rocks.

It would be difficult to dent down tube on a Slingshot.
http://www.slingshotbikes.com/bikes/1

if it was my frame and I couldnt get it fixed for free I would just keep on riding it, it is perfectly safe as the downtube is always in tension.

Titanium comes in various gauges and of course tube thickness differs from bike design to bike design.

Just a thought, but I'd contact Orange and see what the next step really is rather than prejudice any possible future dealings with them by asking for the Great Unwashed’s opinions on public web forums.

I did the same sort of thing when I threw a fork at my old Kona Pahohoeoaoeohoeoaoeoaohoeoe aluminium frame but I rode it for years after. I'd just keep an eye on it, but the BB area is pretty low stressed (other than potential flying rocks….) so nothing should catastrophically fail.

"it is perfectly safe as the downtube is always in tension"

really?

really?

yeah. he wrote it on teh internets, so it must be true.

Maybe he's getting confused with teh Slingshots.

A little update:
Have spoken to Orange who were very helpful. They going to get back to me once an engineer has seen the photo's.

Have also been to two local bike shops, one of which is an Orange dealer. Neither were able to tell if it was a crack or a crease. General consensus was that it should be ok, but better to seek the opinion of someone who works with titanium as a small weld job might be a good fix. I'd prefer that option if feasible to a whole tube replacement which would be rather costly.