Advice appreciated on how best to get rid of two now sadly cracked titanium frames. Given the energy expended in their production I’d rather the material was recycled somehow, any suggestions. I’m in Birmingham.

Is it not possible to get them repaired?

I don’t know but I certainly wouldn’t want to ride them after myself. One of them the crack originates in the ST/TT weld and propagates forwards, the other is around the down tube not far from the head tube IIRC.
It’s not something I’ve looked into. I’ll try and post some pictures tomorrow.

What makes? Still in warranty?

If worst comes to the worst, and they can’t be fixed/replaced/repaired, Reynolds the master tube makers are a Birmingham company, drop them a note asking if they can help with recycling Ti as they do Ti too though they’re most famous for Steel.

solder then on to the classifieds ebay 😉 😉

it’s quite possible they could be repairable.

tbh I’d ebay them, whoever buys them will not be doing so to throw them away – so will ‘recycle’ automatically

if you’re worried about them being reused and don’t want them to be then bash the tubes flat with a hammer and just visit your nearest scrap metal place – they’ll pay your the market rate for the weight of metal.

I’d have thought the value of Ti would be quite good when weighed in – worth a call to your local scrappy to ask the £ per Kg.

What frames are they and how much do you want for them?

Digger90 – Member

I’d have thought the value of Ti would be quite good when weighed in – worth a call to your local scrappy to ask the £ per Kg.

The only problem there is that one would imagine the frames don’t weigh a lot. Although the £ per Kg may be quite favourable, there won’t be a lot of Kg!

Personally, I’d seek advice from a Ti frame builder on having some form of reparatory gussets welded over the damaged areas (‘elastoplast!’). I can think of at least one such person who regularly posts on here, although uttering his name would doubtlessly give rise to howls of derision and accusations of sycophancy from certain quarters. (Sod it, ask Brant!)

Failing that, as b r says, I’d eBay or classified them, clearly stating the damage and disclaiming any responsibility if the new owners elect to risk riding them unrepaired.

http://www.vernonbarkercycles.co.uk/other%20services.htm

Titanium and Aluminium

We are one of the very few frame builders who have equipment and expertise for repair and modification of both Aluminium and Titanium frames and components. Here is a list of regularly carried out repairs and modifications:-

Fit cable stops and guides, including hydraulic brake pipe fittings.

Weld and reinforce broken seat tubes.

Fill cracks in head tubes and recut.

Replace cracked front changer bosses.

Overlay and reinforce cracks in TIG welds.

Replace gear hangers and drop outs

My mate recycles bikes at an environmental charoty in the West Midlands
wildside activity centre wolverhampton

whatever you do DO NOT use Vernon Barker. ive seen some of his repairs and they are awful!! his welds look like pidgeon sh1t

Just open Yellow Pages and ring round local welding firms until you find one who can TIG weld titanium. You’ll be amazed at the skills that are out there.

I had a Hei Hei frame with a bad chainring gash in the RH chainstay that I wanted to sell; got it welded and refinished at a local firm in Littleborough for £25 then sold it with a full open explanation of what I’d done as well as pictures.

I’ve seen a repair on a Ti frame done by Enigma bikes.

If you’d not seen the damage frame before you’d not know it had been repaired.

I know it’s not titanium but we once had an ancilotti re-welded by pro-drive which works on wrc cars.

enigma repaired a ti frame for me and its still going strong

I had a bike ‘welded’ by VB, I wish I hadn’t…

Cheers for the advice, crappy camera phone pictures are here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/senoj_evad/6953408798/in/photostream/

Sounds like there’s plenty of options for an adventurous soul getting them fixed up, I’ve not got the time for that myself but am more than happy to pass them on to someone else for a modest amount.

Offers?

I had a crack in the chainstay of my tinbred. Took it to a local company who make titanium components for racing yachts, the guy welded it in his lunchbreak for a tenner, good as gold since.

He fixed another mates tinbred when it split at the TT/seat tube junction, put a neat shim round it, very tidy welding, cost about a tenner too.

Shame they’re not singlespeed frames, as i’m after one, and quite happy to take on a mending job 😀

What size are they?

Give them to a local artisan who can make something from them; broken Ti frames are ten a penny, but with a bit of polishing and the right treatment they make nice jewellery.

Find a decent welder(by recommendation on here?) and resurrect these frames i say.

There is a safety aspect, but also far too much scaredyness when it comes to component failures imo.
The manufacturers love it obviously.

What frames are they? I could be interested, I’ll have to check how big the cabinet is at work- not sure if it could fit a frame in…

Also interested, size dependant, and am based near brum.

LOL, well good to know that there’s a market for them, they’re 17.5 inch frames. So anyone know any birmingham welders up to the job?

Yellow Pages + telephone.

Ask on retrobike, I sold a cracked ti frame to someone on there for repair.

“I’ve seen a repair on a Ti frame done by Enigma bikes”

Conversely i saw a vernon barker repaired frame – looked like id dragged my mig down it with the wrong welding wire…

Now up for charity auction here;-

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/fscharity-auction-2x-cracked-titanium-frames

Cheers for the post dicky boy:
If anyone fancies one of these frames I’m doing a little auction for Mountain rescue scotland, send me an email with how much you’d be willing to donate (and a frame preference) by MIDDAY today if you fancy a bargain

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/fscharity-auction-2x-cracked-titanium-frames