Anyone know anything about titanium repair????

DUDE!  That sucks.....  Pretty much all I can say.

I'm way out of my league, but I seem to recall that titanium repairs (and general welding for that matter) is a tricky business.  Best left up to the pros at Litespeed...

Having that fail at speed?  Scary thought...

Man that sucks!!!!

I don't know much about Titanium other than it is tough to work on.

When I first looked at the photos, I could not figure out how the top tube would have cracked laterally like that and have it extend through 2 welded joints across the seat tube. But I would bet that the fracture point is right where your seat post ends or very close to it.

Even if it is not covered under warranty, (I suspect it is even if you did not register as long as you can prove you got it new) I would bet that Lightspeed might be able to give you a deal on either a repair or replacement frame. 

I know Cervelo has a "Crash Deal" where if you crash and/or break your frame, they will sell you one at 20% below wholesale. I thought that was quite generous but my LBS said it is not all that uncommon.  

One thing does come to mind though. I bet having a Ti Frame really saved you. if this would have been Carbon, it probably would have just failed outright without warning instead of flexing and fatiguing.

Took the seat posr out, and the bottom is a good 6" below the crack point

Hopefully will be covered under lifetime warranty.  Issue is timing, getting it back, training for IMAZ, etc.  I ride a 57, have a friend that has a 55 that I am sure will let me borrow (haven't asked yet), not ideal but better than nothing.

Cracks like this are VERY difficult to fix.  (my experience comes from welding steel and aluminum but the same principles apply to Ti).

The issue is that you have no groove to place the filler material.  The best you could do is to spot welding it across the crack.  The crack would still be there but the welds would span across it and hopefully hold it together.  Not really the best option.

The best fix would be to cut out the top of the seat tube from the three tubes and rejoin them with a custom made piece.  It CAN be done...just a question of how much money you want to spend.  I'd call the manufacturer first.

I'm really surprised it broke ACROSS the weld.  Usualyl things break along the edge of a weld.

Titanium can be tricky to weld for the layman or even for an experienced welder who's never done anything but carbon steel, stainless steel and aluminum.  The key is to protect the weld puddle from contamination and from introducing any oxygen into the weld.  Normal shielding gas as used in standard welding techniques for austenitic stainless steel may not be sufficient.  It's imperative to keep the weld puddle oxygen free.

I work in a weld shop and have been a certified nuclear and military welding inspector for nearly 30 years, and in all that time we have had only one guy come through our shop who was really proficient at welding titanium with the gas tungsten arc method (GTAW).

For more information on welding titanium you can look here:

http://www.key-to-metals.com/Article28.htm

Personally, I'd send it back to the company that built it before I'd allow anyone else to do weld repairs on the frame.  The propensity for cracking is just way too high.

under warranty, heading back to litespeed, we'll see what they say.

Hopefully they'll just replace.  not sure I could swing even an outrageous deal on a new frame. 

Hopefully they'll replace it.

When I sent my Blade back, it took a good couple of months for Litespeed to repair it and get it back to me. My advice: hound them constantly.