Originally Posted by
ljsense
Anyone with specific knowledge of LItespeed frames or general knowledge of titanium welding could really help me out here.
My bike is a 90s Litespeed Appalachian and I'm happy with TRP mini-V brakes and plan to ride it in this configuration until the end of time or the frame cracks. If for some reason there was a need to switch back to cantilever brakes, a seatclamp cable stop would be a more appealing option than what exists, which is a post cable stop welded asymmetrically to the nondrive side seatstay.
My question is, if I carefully saw and file off this cable stop post, will the chainstay it's connected to be a solid tube, or for some reason does a titanium frame builder drill a hole in the tube where an extra part gets welded on? For the main frame tubes, there is usually a hole drilled where they are welded, but I don't know if this is the case for very small additions.
Thanks for any insights!
I doubt anyone here would know the answer to that, unless they worked at Litespeed, and putting those on was their job.
If the "post" is a tube, then it is best practice to have two holes, one connected to the interior of the stay where argon is fed in, and a second near the other end to let the air out. Proper purging of the air to completely fill the tube with argon takes a while, and a busy shop trying to make money might not fully purge every little braze-on. I cut a couple Litespeeds apart back when putting S&S couplers on Ti bikes was part of my job. I remember seeing signs of less-than-perfect purging inside, so we know they weren't overly fastidious about it.
If the post is solid rather than tubular, then a hole is unlikely.
If you saw it off, file it flush, and it ends up showing a hole, you can
- ignore it
- put a spot of grey duct tape over it
- epoxy it with "toughened" epoxy that has ground-up metal in it — some of them are the right color to blend with Ti
- have a Ti welder do a tiny spot weld to fill the hole, then file that flush. Since it's so small and fast, you can probably get away with not purging the inside of the frame
For someone who's set up to weld Ti, #4 would be easier/quicker than #3, but for everyone else, that's not worth the trouble and expense — use #1 2 or 3. For me, probably #1 even though I
am set up to weld Ti. I'm lazy and such a little hole wouldn't trouble me.