What Do You Make Of This Dent?
 

This is a Litespeed titanium stem. There is a small dent on the side of it.

Is there any way to fix this? Would you consider it safe to use?

http://i1194.photobucket.com/albums/...a/IMG_0391.jpg
http://i1194.photobucket.com/albums/...a/IMG_0389.jpg

With forks, stems, and bars...all critical points for failure to occur and can lead to catastrophic injuries it is best to replace if there is any question about it. So since you are posting a question then it is my recommendation that you should just buy a replacement.

If you are not satisfied with the above response then you can take some automotive bondo to fill the dent and then paint over the entire stem to cover the repair.

-j

Maybe i'm a fool, but I wouldn't give it a second thought for structural soundness.

i would have to consider that a beauty mark.:lol:

After seen zillions of steel , AL and Ti bikes with dents, cracks i really doubt that stem will fail any day soon and probably never. As for how to fix the dent, you cant fix it unless you want to add some plastic putty used for aluminum body work (I imagine that will work because no idea if there is one for Ti) and paint the stem over it, besides that pretty much there is not much to do.

Just in case, how in the world did you manage to get a dent in there?? 1st time i see something like that.

Good luck.

I'm not an expert, but that would not worry me in the least.

It is without a doubt going to fail catastrophically, without warning, causing you to die a horrible, lingering death. It would be best for you to send it to me immediately for proper safe disposal!

Simple test. Install the stem into a test bike (a junker). Slide some old handlebars in and tighten. Lay a piece of plywood over stem and bars. Put a scale under the front fork; load up 200 lbs, and now add extra weight with hands on the bars. Push hard up and down. See if you can max out the scale. If that works and the stem shows no signs of deformation, you're probably good to go. Normal working load is about 40% of body weight on the front wheel. The handlebars get maybe 25%. So if you're max'ing out the scale (and mine goes to 400lbs) and bouncing a little up and down hopefully flexing the bars, you're probably going to be okay with a pretty big safety factor.

I'd make up a terrible lie about how I got it and repeat the story whenever I got drunk.

I agree that the stem is sound. Ti is awfully tough stuff and hard to damage significantly. A light aluminum stem with that dent would bother me but not Ti and particularly not in that spot.

With any question like this, we tend to see 2 groups of replies. One group says if you even suspect a safety issue, replace it without question. The other group says wait a minute, that thing is still plenty strong and there's no way you're going to break in normal riding. No disrespect whatsoever to the first group, but I'm in the second. Certainly you can test it by applying some extreme force by doing something like what gyozadude suggests. Of course I'd watch for any deformation or cracking over time, but it doesn't seem remotely likely to me.

That is so minor I wouldn't have given it a second thought, let alone take the time to photograph & post.

No worries for me.

-G

I wouldn't be concerned at all.

depends on your level of need for perfection on every part of your bike.

That test is so subjective, you cant fully test using a car.

I hardly have any experience or much knowledge about Ti, so I wasn't really sure where to scale the severity of the dent. It looks like its not a real issue at all. I guess I'll just live with it.

You don't need to worry about the dent. The most likely failure point is in the heat affected zone of the welds.

If it was ally, I might be slightly concerned.

Ti? No worries.

I'm pretty sure Ti costs money cause it's tough to work. If it wasn't expensive to manufacture, somebody would have undercut the big names long ago.

Ti is tough to machine and form and it's demanding and unforgiving of poor welding technique so that's a lot of the reason for it's cost premium. Done right it's very durable and, indeed, can be an heirloom.

Of all the places where you could have a structurally significant dent on a bike (main frame tubes, chain and seat stay tubes, and fork stearing tube and blades), this dent on the bar stem would give me the least worry...I'd think of it as a mere cosmetic blemish.

+1 and point at a scar you've had for years from something far more embarrassing.