Got my Van Nich Zion out in preparation for Kielder. Made a terrible creaking sound on every pedal stroke. Stripped it down and all I can find is that the top tube/ seat tube weld may be lifting underneath. Its really hard to be sure.
The noise is replicated by flexing the frame, pressing down on cranks with seatpost clamped. Rode it without seatpost and no noise – so not cranks, bb etc. I’ve tried different seatposts and all same, plus copperslipped it to see if it was rubbing.
Its a few years old so could be on its way out. Have to make a decision whether to take it to Kielder (which seems daft given what I suspect is wrong) or find another frame.
I thought Ti could be fixed but not 100% sure I have a crack.

Thoughts??

I would imagine yes it could be welded over the crack to repair it however the crack may be from poor original welding practices in which case that area of material may now be damaged not just the cracked bit you can (or in this case can’t) see.

Titanium bikes have a bad habit of doing this. I lost my faith in Ti a while ago.

Stripped it down and all I can find is that the top tube/ seat tube weld may be lifting underneath

How? Have you got pics?

You could get it crack detected. A mate had a Litespeed that came apart (at the headtube!) and they gave him a new one under warranty. I understand you can repair Ti frames, but you’d have to check with VN in the first instance once you determine if it is broken.

VN don’t do fixes. If it’s damaged, they give you a new frame.

I’m the second owner so suspect vn might not be too interested in my problem. Could email to see if there is any potential benefit.

There’s not much to see – I just get the impression that one of the welds looks a bit different to the others, the margin appears darker and more defined, as if its lifting.

Enigma will replace tubes for you, at a price of course. Far too many Ti frames failing lately (as I know only too well 🙄 )

pedalhead, I have an Ego, been fine so far…. Care to expand on what happened? Just out of interest of course

I have an ego also and would have no issue taking it to enigma at least for their opinion if nothing else!

I do have some creaking going on but checked the frame and all seems ok, think its one of those BB, seatpost creaks though…. Needs more investigation

There is a shim in the frame for the seatpost?

If so it may be rubbing. Spray oil in the seat tube then invert the frame

bloodynora – Member
pedalhead, I have an Ego, been fine so far…. Care to expand on what happened? Just out of interest of course

oh I don’t have an Enigma frame, I just took my Ti frame there when I broke it (the first time). They did a small weld on it but also said they could replace the entire tube if the weld didn’t hold. It held fine, but a couple of months later I broke the frame a bit more terminally. I really like the characteristics of Ti but I’m not sure I’ll ever buy another one as I’ve been hearing of way too many failures.

Plenty durable ti frames about – as ever, it’s about design/manufacture not material.

cynic-al – Member
Plenty durable ti frames about – as ever, it’s about design/manufacture not material.

I’m not saying there aren’t reliable Ti frames out there, but bear in mind that a lot of failures are not publicised.

pedalhead – Member
a lot of failures are not publicised.

Precisely. If there was a similar hoo-ha every time a steel or aluminium frame cracked, this forum would be unreadable.

Research suggests that carbon failures are over-reported by 647%, ti by 428%, vs 0% for alu and steel.

As cynic-al say’s, there is a welded shim in the top of the seatpost which may be causing the creaking/tapping noise, take the seatpost out and the bottom bracket, turn it up side down and spray some frame saver into the seat tube through the top of the bb shell, leave it upside down overnight to let the frame saver set. Worked on my yukon.

Oooh I have a Yukon – will await this!

Just to be clear you are saying the VN has a shim, not the other bike?

yep take the seatpost out and shine a torch down the tube you shold be able to see where the shim ends, because the shim is only welded at the top of the tube, there is a gap at the bottom and your noise maybe the bottom of the shim contacting the seat tube as the frame flexes the frame saver will just fill that gap and prevent the noise (hopefully). The yukon is one of VN road bikes btw.

I was reading up (was very bored here at the moment as I am working away from home) about making frames, and it seems the welding on Ti needs to be done very carefully with the purging with argon being bang on otherwise the material around the weld can become contaminated, it changes colour but this can be polished out so you will never know if it is a bad weld or not if buying a frame after they have “cleaned” it, this can cause the area around the weld to fail, rewelding will not cure that weakness, maybe that is why so many “cheaper” ti frames are failing. however if it is well made by craftsmen and engineers then it should be very strong and robust… I am hoping my enigma is the latter 🙂 as I have a lot of faith in their name and ethos.

Cheers – could explain the problem -I’ll try it out

izakimak has it – it’ll be the seat tube shim. my ti frame does it now and then and the yearly upside-down-with-oil sorts it.

if it was a crack that was causing the creaking, the crack would grow and be obvious quite quickly.

Took my litespeed out today and noticed a creak.
After some searching I found a loose chainring bolt that was causing the noise.

Appears to have fixed the problem – brilliant. Many thanks guys.