this bike is not ment to be a lamp!
ok so my prized litespeed. dream bike, white whale, bucket list kinda deal has developed a crack,, ick.. after exploring all my options..

1. make a lamp out of it... no... not gonna happen!

2. send it back to litespeed for a tube ectomy... cut out the down tube and replace... huge coin.. for this deal... near the price a new frame..

3. have it done local.. by this fellow that does aero space welding for nasa contractors and such... this will be at most 100 bucks but he pitched a fig of closer to 40.. will do the fish scale. row of nickel kinda finish weld..

i talked with the guy and he has a real passion for the work seems to know his stuff.. was an instructor in college... explained to me how he would back shield the weld.. to keep contamination.. out.. and seemed like just a really solid cat ..


now.. here is the bike in question... and im not sure how this crack showed up... just one day.... what is that creak sound? the bike rides fine but if this thing propagates... not cool.. so im going to have it welded and see if the stress crack is arrested... or it pops up on the other side of the tube... but the thing that surprises me is how the crack is arrow straight.. like some one took a straight edge and ran an exacto on it... i have looked at the titanium frame grave yards on the web and non look quite like this crack in a frame... i checked and the crack did not extend to the weld... took a pick and checked the rest of the frame and its all smooth... well anyway.. will be taking the frame in friday or nextweek... hope it comes out ok...


litespeed vortex 2007