Tweet this:

In August 2010, just after I’d done the Mille Cymru, I discovered a crack in the frame of my prized Setavento Custom Titanium bike. Normally a problem like that would be a warranttee return but Setavento are no longer trading, they are not contactable and as far as I know there is no active waranttee scheme.

The damage looked terminal. I stripped all the Campag parts off the bike, sold them and bought a new bike, a Specialized Roubaix. I asked around if the titanium bike could be repaired. Apparently, the place it fissured near the seatpost/stays/top tube interface is a common place for a crack. One specialist (retired) welder said he’d not seen a crack propergate through the weld in titanium in quite that way before.

I phoned a specialist company who make titanium bikes and asked them about a repair. The first guy I talked to said “oh yes fine no problem”. The second guy said “no way, it’s not a viable repair”

All this was a shame, because it was a great frame. The fit was excellent and titanium as a material gives a good ride.

The bike festered in the back of the garage for over a year. I did PBP on the new carbon bike. Then I heard that some one I knew had had a similar problem and had got it repaired. They’d used a welder and bike fixer from up north. He’d welded up the cracks and put a reinforcing collar around the effect area.

I called him up, sent some emails with photos of the cracks and then the frame. A few weeks later the frame returned.

I’ve rebuilt it with a single front chainring and a wide range MTB cassette at the back. It still rides nicely and I’m looking forward to using it again

Advertisement