Drilling a hole in my ti hardtail

I really fancy one of the new 170mm drop reverbs but from what I can see they only come in stealth format, so I need to drill a hole.
I don’t think there will be too much of a problem as the frame is a very solidly built litespeed cohutta, but where would be the best place to drill?

Does ti need any more reason to fail? I’d leave it well alone!

Only place I’d consider putting a hole in Ti would be the bottom of the BB shell, which is probably not much use for routing a hose. Anywhere else is asking for trouble imo.

There’s a seapost routing hole in my Pact. Above the BB on the front of the seat tube.

I’d be talking to a Ti frame specialist, and if they think it’ll be fine, pay them to do it.

There’s a seapost routing hole in my Pact. Above the BB on the front of the seat tube.

There may well be but this is different to adding your own on a frame there it hasn’t been designed in.

where would be the best place to drill?

In a non-TI frame designed to have a hole where you’re drilling

8)

I’m about to drill my carbon frame if I die will let you know:-)

Seems people are quite down on this idea then? I’ve been drilling holes in all sorts of bikes for years – rivnutting rack mounts, bottle bosses and all sorts of stuff.

My thread was for a steel hardtail but I’d do the same on TI I reckon.

nixie – Member
There’s a seapost routing hole in my Pact. Above the BB on the front of the seat tube.
There may well be but this is different to adding your own on a frame there it hasn’t been designed in.

It’s a small hole, and I’m not sure how any other frame I’ve seen has had a hole ‘designed in’. What would you do, put more thickness around the hole? I’ve not seen this done personally so as long as you stay away from the welds I reckon you’d be fine.

What’s the worst that could happen?
😀

If you stay away from welds, I don’t really see why Ti would be any worse than any other material – it’s the welds on Ti that are dodgy. The tubing itself is great.

This one was designed in:

http://jbarcycling.blogspot.com/2013/06/what-does-lifetime-warranty-mean-well.html

Hmmm, interesting. The cracking litespeed story has actually given me an idea. I have a pair of bottle bosses on the underside of the downtube on my frame – I could just use one of those.

Anyway, I’ve had an even more worrying idea. I’ve got a Works Components 2 degree slackset on the bike – there’s plenty of meat in that where it’s offset to drill through…

Drilling titanium will be interesting.

Are there any holes in the headtube or down tube for cable routing spare? Just run it through one of them and then round the BB shell

Drilling titanium will be interesting.

globalti – Member

Drilling titanium will be interesting.

It’s not so different from steel tbh, I added a drain hole in my BB and it went easily enough with a decent hss drill and a bit of wd40. Though, I’m told (I know **** all, I just repeat stuff) that it both work and heat hardens, which could add a little spice if you don’t do it in one go

(grinding titanium is fun though, SPARKS!)

Watching with this with interest, as I’m in a very similar situation…

Good luck, OP!

I watched a Lynskey frame builder drill several holes in a cracked Ti frame of mine to effect a repair to it. The drilling stopped the cracks expanding any further before welding to close it up again. To my knowledge the repair held (I got rid of the frame on my return to the UK).

Coincidentally and related to to the Litespeed comment above, I was riding a bikepacking route now named the Cohutta Cat.