En*gma

[Bledlow]

This is making me worry about my frame.

13 years old now. Heavy use for a while, but not recently due to health.

[LittleWheelsandBig]

If some parts of Ti welds are pretty colours (e.g. orange, blue) keep a close watch, particularly in highly stressed areas. Those colours indicate a fair bit of oxygen contamination while the metal was hot and increased risk of crack initiation. A ‘light straw coloured’ weld might be ok but silver consistent welds are best. There could still be hidden flaws to initiate cracks, of course.

[sam]

This is making me worry about my frame.

If there is no evidence of poor welding as per LW&B,







I wouldn't worry about it. I do wonder how many people did this when I first started posting about my experience.

Anyone in the market for a titanium bike would do well to take glowing reviews of the buying experience (“They answered all my questions and were so polite!”, etc.) with a metric ton of salt.



Lemon would've been more appropriate.

Mostly I'm blue here because my poor photoshop cut-so-I-can-paste skills are shown in gory detail.

[sam]

Haven't quite finished Jack's follies, but first a little nod to the times in which we live:



Not all of us are going to start treating this like the flu just because you snap your fingers, Boris.

[sam]

Here is the Sugar Loaf, so-called because we love anachronisms. Clearly it should be the Traffic Cone.



Jack being the sort to get into wagers, and with disposable income to burn, this is said to have been built after he claimed he could see the spire of St Giles in Dallington from his estate. Well, he could now (though one can't imagine him shinnying his way up, and what looks like a bricked in window doesn't seem high enough and is inconveniently pointed the wrong direction. The moral may be, don't take these stories too seriously.)

A family later took up residence; I don't think it was their getaway pad from the high life in London. It also made a cozy machine gun nest in WWII.


The church in question


Saint with selfie of favourite deer

(click to show/hide)

"As Giles was celebrating Mass to pardon the Emperor Charlemagne's sins, an angel deposited upon the altar a letter outlining a sin so terrible Charlemagne had never dared confess it."

[sam]

One more of the Sugar Loaf in all its forced perspective glory. Make it touch the sky, I imagine Jack saying.



On to Brightling Observatory. This engraving was based on a watercolour by Turner, someone Fuller commissioned from time to time. You may have to squint (or you could just click here).



It was equipped with telescope



and camera obscura.



Here's the view from outside the front door. You should be able to see the obelisk off to the left, which means our tour of the follies is at an end.

[Ian H]

I have just left a cracked Ti frame (cracked stay, not a weld) with Ted James Design.  Ted is going to replace both chainstays with a better (less ovalised) design.  Should be ready in about three weeks.

[Bledlow]

If some parts of Ti welds are pretty colours (e.g. orange, blue) keep a close watch, particularly in highly stressed areas. Those colours indicate a fair bit of oxygen contamination while the metal was hot and increased risk of crack initiation. A ‘light straw coloured’ weld might be ok but silver consistent welds are best. There could still be hidden flaws to initiate cracks, of course.

No funny colours, I'm glad to say. Those Taiwanese welds are all pale grey.

[Hot Flatus]

I have just left a cracked Ti frame (cracked stay, not a weld) with Ted James Design.  Ted is going to replace both chainstays with a better (less ovalised) design.  Should be ready in about three weeks.

Was this your Qoroz or your Omega?