How repairable are titanium tubes in practice? Is a crack nearly all the way around a top tube fixable? Is a failure indicative of defective tubes or a bad build i.e. Could the tubes be more brittle than they should be?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Cotic-Soda-frame-/231544476942?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item35e920550e%5D

Ti is repairable, just make sure you choose a reputable frame builder who knows what they’re doing.

I wouldn’t pay more than £50 for it though.

It won’t look pretty either.

Sleeve it, and re-weld further down the top tube, shouldn’t look too bad (just an extra weld around the TT) but yeah it’ll spoil the aesthetic a bit, and might ride a bit stiffer as well, as most of the give in a frame is from the TT, so might not have the Ti “float”

I know someone who had a Soda. His cracked along a weld too.

well my Soda is in fine condition. I don’t do any of that proper of roading though, just rides int Dales.

I could be selling it though.

Yep, still got mine, still in fine condition and still my “go-to” bike in spite of the rather unfashionable wheel size. Drive train a bit knackered – just ordered 1×11 from CRC last night 🙂

Saw that one on eBay, enjoy it if you buy it and manage to get it repaired.

I bought a cracked Soda from on here which I think was the year before that one, got Enigma to fix it for IIRC £100, ended up with a lovely ti frame for about what you’d pay for a steel inbred. (and the repair was useful any time I got a bit embarassed about riding a thousand quid frame- “Look! It was cheap!”)

The cracks on mine were similiar to that one, not quite the same. Here’s the repair:

[url=https://flic.kr/p/jFueJA]IMG_1337[/url] by Northwindlowlander, on Flickr

[url=https://flic.kr/p/jFuics]IMG_1338[/url] by Northwindlowlander, on Flickr

I thought I had pics of the original cracks but can’t find them. Enigma don’t offer a guarantee for the work, quite reasonably they say it’s cracked once, you can’t blame them if it happens again- but the work was good, it was a reasonable turnover despite them being busy. I’d totally recommend them.

Anyway- it worked out brilliantly, I had a great time with it, built it up stupidly light with rigids and occasionally sids, did the glentress seven on it as a rigid, tons of local xc, put ice spikers on it for a winter and used it as an embarassingly nice “spare bike”, no massively hard use but a fair amount of it.

in the end I sold it on to someone on here and last I saw it had bombers on it and was generally built to be hammered, and it didn’t seem to mind. As far as I know it’s still going.

All very encouraging. The only problem is someone else has now started to bid on it…. Hmmmm.

Actually looks like a tasteful battle scar. Sort of like the one on Action Man’s cheek. Adds kudos in my opinion.

if it was a medium I would have sniped you 😉

I’ve been watching it for a while and now I think it’s reached its limit.

Cheers for the heads up, always fancied one of these 😉

I’m out. I only wanted a posh singlespeed hack child tow’er. With a decent fix this is now entering non cracked Simple or Solaris territory. Interested to see how high it goes though and then to see the finished build photos on here …I’ll count this as a PSA.

I remember an STW forum ride where one of the forum folks cracked his Soda in the same way. Put me off buying one TBH.

atlaz – Member
“I remember an STW forum ride where one of the forum folks cracked his Soda in the same way. Put me off buying one TBH.”

And now you’ll never know how really good they are. If there was a 29er equivalent I’d buy it now. Would love to have had one of those Ti singulars.

This reminds me, I still have a cracked Soda in the shed.
I should really get round to getting it fixed, lovely frame.
Mine cracked near the brake mount…. 😥

Interested to see how much this goes for.

Looks like insufficient seatpost insert/overlap?

doom_mountain
This reminds me, I still have a cracked Soda in the shed.
I should really get round to getting it fixed, lovely frame.
Mine cracked near the brake mount….

Interested to see how much this goes for.doom_mountain – Member
This reminds me, I still have a cracked Soda in the shed.
I should really get round to getting it fixed, lovely frame.
Mine cracked near the brake mount….

Interested to see how much this goes for.

Straight to eBay then! £188 is ‘a lot’ even considering £100 to repair

I’m not grumpy at all, I hoped it’d go a lot cheaper for a bargain!

in the end I sold it on to someone on here and last I saw it had bombers on it and was generally built to be hammered, and it didn’t seem to mind. As far as I know it’s still going.

Revs! I use it to complement my big bike and it gets ridden pretty hard but hopefully reasonably smoothly. Normal XC reds and blacks as well as off-piste. Some drops but no more than 3′ – 4′.

Rides really nicely and must admit I love it. No sign of further issues.

I must be going senile 😆 Must admit I was nervous when I sold it, sod’s law said it’d probably break as soon as you picked it up so good to know it’s still going strong.

Running SLX brakes and drivetrain and got Purgatorys on Hope hoops with Flow EX’s so not too burly NW. It’s been truly brilliant as well!

NW is quickly becoming the most helpful person on this site. Very thoughtful putting up all that info and attaching pics.
Haven’t got a large knolly chilcotin for sale have you? 🙂

No bother Wrecker, I got tons of help from on here when I needed to get it fixed so it’s only fair to pass it on

And now you’ll never know how really good they are. If there was a 29er equivalent I’d buy it now. Would love to have had one of those Ti singulars.

*cough*
http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/fssingular-pegasus-29er-ti-frame

….and the chilcotin? 😀

I’ve got about 10 of those. But not for you.