Cracked Al frame = replacement time

[ritcho]

Well folks, it finally happened (a little sooner than I thought). A crack all the way through the right chainstay on my venerable Giant Peleton 8200. Seven years old, going on eight and plenty of kms, Sydney's pothole-laden roads finally killed it. Nevertheless, this is a good news/good news story.

The good news is that the break did not result in a crash. I didn't realise it was broken until I checked at work - the bike made some nasty creaking noises near the end of my commute. I wrongly assumed a problem with the crank, pedals or bottom bracket, so I soft pedalled the remaining short distance and made the awful discovery at the end.

The other good news is that I'm in the market for a new frame. Something a lot lighter will be on the menu... (specifically, frame, fork, stem, bars and seatpost will do. The Ultegra 9sp is a year old and my homemade wheels (amazingly) have so far withstood everything that has been thrown at them).

Ritch... whose wallet is also probably going to get a lot lighter...

 

[Mike]

ritcho wrote:
> Well folks, it finally happened (a little sooner than I thought). A
> crack all the way through the right chainstay on my venerable Giant
> Peleton 8200. Seven years old, going on eight and plenty of kms,

Do you have the Giant 10-year frame warranty?
Would this be good if there is no sign of crash damage or abuse?

 

[[email protected]]

You could get it fixed. I recently had my frame fixed by a guy who
welds aluminium race car frames. It broke in the same spot and cost $
60 to fix compared with ~ $ 250 Cecil Walker suggested. It's been no
problems so far.

Although a cracked frame is a mighty good excuse for a new frame...

 

[ritcho]

Mike wrote:
> ritcho wrote:
>
>> Well folks, it finally happened (a little sooner than I thought). A
>> crack all the way through the right chainstay on my venerable Giant
>> Peleton 8200. Seven years old, going on eight and plenty of kms,
>
>
> Do you have the Giant 10-year frame warranty?
> Would this be good if there is no sign of crash damage or abuse?

strip the bike right down, then find someone who can TIG weld aluminium
in their sleep. know any folks in the light aircraft industry?
i had a similar repair a couple of years ago, cost a slab =)

cheers,

kim

The cost of a slab sounds great... however, although I'm no metallurgist, I can do a pretty mean google. Most of the references I've seen on the matter suggest you need to do a full heat treatment to recover the tensile properties of the alloy, otherwise the frame will be weaker at and around the weld. This part of the frame, the drive-side chainstay, just behind the bottom bracket, needs to be as strong as it can get. I'll have to find a mechanic with oven (and a bottle shop with top quality slabs - on second thoughts, the latter is useful for its own sake).

It's also a good chance to get a CF frame...

Ritch

 

[Kim Hawtin]

Mike wrote:
> ritcho wrote:
>
>> Well folks, it finally happened (a little sooner than I thought). A
>> crack all the way through the right chainstay on my venerable Giant
>> Peleton 8200. Seven years old, going on eight and plenty of kms,
>
>
> Do you have the Giant 10-year frame warranty?
> Would this be good if there is no sign of crash damage or abuse?

strip the bike right down, then find someone who can TIG weld aluminium
in their sleep. know any folks in the light aircraft industry?
i had a similar repair a couple of years ago, cost a slab =)

cheers,

kim

 

[Bikesoiler]

Mike wrote:
> ritcho wrote:
>
>> Well folks, it finally happened (a little sooner than I thought). A
>> crack all the way through the right chainstay on my venerable Giant
>> Peleton 8200. Seven years old, going on eight and plenty of kms,
>
>
> Do you have the Giant 10-year frame warranty?
> Would this be good if there is no sign of crash damage or abuse?

strip the bike right down, then find someone who can TIG weld aluminium
in their sleep. know any folks in the light aircraft industry?
i had a similar repair a couple of years ago, cost a slab =)

cheers,

kim

If you want your frame repaired then send it to Grip Sport. Dont trust an aluminium frame to just anyone.
I'd get it repaired to use as a commuter & still buy a new frame for racing. Best of both worlds.

 

[Gags]

"ritcho" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>
> Well folks, it finally happened (a little sooner than I thought). A
> crack all the way through the right chainstay on my venerable Giant
> Peleton 8200. Seven years old, going on eight and plenty of kms,
> Sydney's pothole-laden roads finally killed it. Nevertheless, this is a
> good news/good news story.
>
> The good news is that the break did not result in a crash. I didn't
> realise it was broken until I checked at work - the bike made some
> nasty creaking noises near the end of my commute. I wrongly assumed a
> problem with the crank, pedals or bottom bracket, so I soft pedalled
> the remaining short distance and made the awful discovery at the end.
>
> The other good news is that I'm in the market for a new frame.
> Something a lot lighter will be on the menu... (specifically, frame,
> fork, stem, bars and seatpost will do. The Ultegra 9sp is a year old
> and my homemade wheels (amazingly) have so far withstood everything
> that has been thrown at them).
>
> Ritch... whose wallet is also probably going to get a lot lighter...
> --
> ritcho
>
I don't know how old your frame is but it might be worth an email to Giant.
I had an old CrMo Wheeler frame for about 7 years or so and then managed to
crack the top 2 inches or so off of the seat tube in the 2002 Mont. I shot
off an email to Wheeler with some photos of the crack and even though I had
no receipt, they sent me a brand new Aluminium mtb frame for the cost of
postage (About $40 or so from memory). I then got the busted frame welded
up and I am now running it as a single speed.

The worst that they can do is say no!!!

Ride On,

Gags

 

[SteveA]

I'd get it repaired to use as a commuter & still buy a new frame for racing. Best of both worlds.

"It's beyond repair, dear. I'll just have to get a new frame. I'll throw the old one behind the shed ready for the next rubbish collection...............Look at that, dear! After I've bought a new frame, I've found someone who can repair the old frame after all!!!"

SteveA

 

[ritcho]

"It's beyond repair, dear. I'll just have to get a new frame. I'll throw the old one behind the shed ready for the next rubbish collection...............Look at that, dear! After I've bought a new frame, I've found someone who can repair the old frame after all!!!"

SteveA

I like your thinking Now these are strategies that _help_.

Ritch

 

[SteveA]

I like your thinking Now these are strategies that _help_.

Ritch

Hmm..still leaves you without new components for the extra frame you have acquired. Might have to try:

"It's beyond repair, dear. I'll just have to get a new frame. I'll throw the old one behind the shed ready for the next rubbish collection...............Hmm, I've looked at new frames and it is far better value to buy a complete bike. You almost get the components for nothing. Those bike factories must get the wheels, groupos, saddles etc for almost nothing when they buy them in bulk. I think I'd better do just that.............Look at that, dear! After I've bought a new bike, I've found someone who can repair the old frame after all!!! And all those old components can go back on when its repaired" (duck, protect soft bits, mumble apologies, run!)

SteveA
(usual disclaimer - the above does not constitute advice or a recommendation. Use of the above is at the user's risk. The author will not be liable for any loss, damage or injury howsoever occuring in connection with the above)

 

[ritcho]

Hmm..still leaves you without new components for the extra frame you have acquired. Might have to try:

"It's beyond repair, dear. I'll just have to get a new frame. I'll throw the old one behind the shed ready for the next rubbish collection...............Hmm, I've looked at new frames and it is far better value to buy a complete bike. You almost get the components for nothing. Those bike factories must get the wheels, groupos, saddles etc for almost nothing when they buy them in bulk. I think I'd better do just that.............Look at that, dear! After I've bought a new bike, I've found someone who can repair the old frame after all!!! And all those old components can go back on when its repaired" (duck, protect soft bits, mumble apologies, run!)

SteveA
(usual disclaimer - the above does not constitute advice or a recommendation. Use of the above is at the user's risk. The author will not be liable for any loss, damage or injury howsoever occuring in connection with the above)

The previous advice was helpful - this advice carries with it the risk of blowing up in my face. I just got a quote for a rather tasty frame and some other bits for about $3K - the complete bike (from the same distributor) comes in at 4-6K depending on components and such. If I overstate the case, I'm likely to cause... great upheaval in the household (to put it mildly).

Thanks for the innovative response though...

Ritch

 

[suzyj]

SteveA wrote:

> Hmm..still leaves you without new components for the extra
> frame you have acquired. Might have to try:

Always a serious problem when you build your own frames. It's difficult to count my bikes, as a couple of them are missing wheels, cranks, etc, as they've donated them to other bikes.

One useful strategy that I use is the "under the radar" approach. As long as each purchase is under a few hundred, then it's unlikely to be noticed.

Brakes and tyres always get the "It'll probably be okay, but the bike would be safer if..." approach, which leads to instant insistance that I spend whatever is necessary to make the bike as safe as possible.

Of course, this way you miss out on getting the group discount, which can be a bummer.

Regards,

Suzy

 

[TimC]

On Fri, 18 Feb 2005 at 04:01 GMT, suzyj (aka Bruce)
was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea:
> SteveA wrote:
>> Hmm..still leaves you without new components for the extra
>> frame you have acquired. Might have to try:
>
> Always a serious problem when you build your own frames. It's
> difficult to count my bikes, as a couple of them are missing wheels,
> cranks, etc, as they've donated them to other bikes.

It's like my electronic projects. They never seem to work, but maybe
that is because I have stolen the connector for one, and put it on
another.

--
TimC -- http://astronomy.swin.edu.au/staff/tconnors/
"I used to be better at logic problems, before I just dumped
them all into TeX and let Knuth pick out the survivors."
-- Plorkwort, 26 September 2004 on alt.religion.kibology