Titanium - how long will it last

[zap]

Originally Posted by gearmeister

Thanks for all the sincere responses...the scarcastic ones, not so much.. I am the original owner of a 1999 Litespeed Ultimate. I am very happy with it and would like to think I could ride it forever... I would estimate it has about 35,000 miles on it.. I am well aware that time and wear fatigue are factors and at 15 years of age I am looking for specifics of these indicators... The bike is meticulously maintained, but am searching for ideas such as should I be doing things like inserting a flashlight into tubes looking for light cracks... I don't even know that the above is even a reasonable example... Thoughts??

Keep it simple.

Just keep an eye out for cracks (exterior) near the bb. Rear bullet caps is another area to keep an eye out for cracks. The Ultimate might have polished caps which should improve reliability. God knows how many Litespeed frames have cracked dt/st/caps over the years.

[professerr]

Slightly off topic, but when titanium fails, does it do so gradually the way that steel does? I've cracked a number of steel frames, but had a fair amount of warning (e.g. the crack got pretty big before I noticed some weird sounds/handling and even then it was rideable enough to make it home). I've always assume titanium would be the same or better. True?

[Mark McM]

Generally yes - the fatigue properties of titanium are similar to the fatigue properties of steel, including the characteristics of crack propagation.

[Ahneida Ride]

Originally Posted by professerr

Slightly off topic, but when titanium fails, does it do so gradually the way that steel does? I've cracked a number of steel frames, but had a fair amount of warning (e.g. the crack got pretty big before I noticed some weird sounds/handling and even then it was rideable enough to make it home). I've always assume titanium would be the same or better. True?

From what I know .... Ti usually gives a warning ...

The longevity of a Ti frame depends greatly on the quality of the welds.

Of course, any frame material subjected to sustained abuse will fail.

Someone recently thought my 10+ year old Legend was a new frame.