Dropouts, forged or not?

[Froze]

I had a car sideswipe me while on my touring bike that sent me into a curb and bent my fork on my very low miles almost new condition 85 Schwinn Le Tour Luxe and the fork is toast but somehow the front wheel survived as well as me even after flipping over the handlebars and landing on concrete. The dude took off of course, so much for the 3 foot Indiana law.

So I am now looking at touring bikes. I had my mind made up to get a Masi Giramondo 700c because it ticked all my boxes, even had the best gearing for climbing steep grades loaded...but then I discovered a problem and not sure if I want to pull the trigger now. The rear dropouts are just plain stamped steel and not forged, I contacted Masi about it and they responded quickly and said their dropouts have never failed even when heavily loaded, of course they're going to say that! So I'm wondering what some you think of this situation.

Thanks

 

[Froze]

What no replies from the intellects here?

Well just in case someone stumbles onto this question and wants an answer I think I now have it.

When you are considering a used or new steel road bike with small diameter tubing the stays need to be beefed up with using a forged dropout. If you are buying a used or new steel mountain bike and play on using it off road you need a forged dropout. A forged dropout is less likely to bend than a stamped dropout. In my case I was looking at touring bikes, and all the ones I could afford did not come with forged dropouts which concerned me because all my steel road bikes with small diameter tubing all used forged dropouts. However I have an old steel Giant Rincon MTB that didn't use forged dropouts and I rode that one a bit rough with jumps, rocky stuff, etc and they did bend slightly which concerned me with the Masi Giramonda 700c I ended up with, but upon measuring the dropout thickness the Masi is 3 MM thicker than the Giant's 5mm thick dropouts. I also spoke to both Masi and the dealer about this and they both said basically the same thing for loaded touring it will hold up with no problem, but they said it wouldn't be recommended to a take this bike loaded and go do rough off road stuff with it.

So there is your answer, you don't need forged dropouts on a road touring bike, but it would be wise to make sure you know how thick they are before you buy. I personally would not trust a 5mm thick dropout on a road touring bike knowing how they got slightly bent on the Giant, but 8mm thickness would be fine, and probably even 7mm would be ok, but I feel the thicker the better.

 

[Jorg Schlagheck]

I had a car sideswipe me while on my touring bike that sent me into a curb and bent my fork on my very low miles almost new condition 85 Schwinn Le Tour Luxe and the fork is toast but somehow the front wheel survived as well as me even after flipping over the handlebars and landing on concrete. The dude took off of course, so much for the 3 foot Indiana law.

So I am now looking at touring bikes. I had my mind made up to get a Masi Giramondo 700c because it ticked all my boxes, even had the best gearing for climbing steep grades loaded...but then I discovered a problem and not sure if I want to pull the trigger now. The rear dropouts are just plain stamped steel and not forged, I contacted Masi about it and they responded quickly and said their dropouts have never failed even when heavily loaded, of course they're going to say that! So I'm wondering what some you think of this situation.

Thanks

That seems kind of unusual for a modern quality touring bike and it would definitely make me rethink my purchasing decision. After all, you don't buy a new bike every time you plan a tour, so you'd like it to last and be happy with it. I would look for a different bike. However, if everything else on that bike is perfect and it is a really sweet deal. I have a commuter bike with stamped dropouts. It's a 1980's rebuild and on the first ride my rear axle shifted when hitting a bump in the road. I wasn't going to put up with that problem, so I took an old derailleur, cut off the mount and flipped it upside down to install it on the non drive side to stabilize the dropout and provide a stop for the axle. This works just as good as a forged dropout and certainly reenforces the existing dropout. Hope that helps.

 

[Froze]

That seems kind of unusual for a modern quality touring bike and it would definitely make me rethink my purchasing decision. After all, you don't buy a new bike every time you plan a tour, so you'd like it to last and be happy with it. I would look for a different bike. However, if everything else on that bike is perfect and it is a really sweet deal. I have a commuter bike with stamped dropouts. It's a 1980's rebuild and on the first ride my rear axle shifted when hitting a bump in the road. I wasn't going to put up with that problem, so I took an old derailleur, cut off the mount and flipped it upside down to install it on the non drive side to stabilize the dropout and provide a stop for the axle. This works just as good as a forged dropout and certainly reenforces the existing dropout. Hope that helps.

Forged dropouts are only necessary on a steel road racing bike that uses small diameter chain/seat stays with thin dropouts to keep the weight down, so they add forged dropouts the the better steel bikes to give it much greater strength. On my 92 Giant Rincon...well it's a cheap bike with cheaper steel, plus I did abuse it on rough off road riding on mountain trails, so after some banging around after some years the dropouts bent just very slightly. Obviously I won't be using the Masi like that, besides almost all touring bikes do not have those forged dropouts UNLESS you buy something like an Atlantis using thin stays and thin dropouts.

I looked at almost a dozen touring bikes at prices I could afford and they all didn't have forged dropouts, brands like Fuji, Jamis, Trek 520 or the 920, Salsa, Surly, Kona, Dawes, Giant, and Raleigh.

Anyway I bought the Masi after many discussions with people in the know.

 

[Bug Smasher]

Oh, how delightful, another cyclist joining the "I had a near-death experience with a car" club. I'm sure the Masi Giramondo is a fine choice, if you're into that sort of thing. But let me guess, you want a touring bike that can handle rough terrain, long distances, and still look good in a coffee shop, right? Good luck finding a bike that checks all those boxes, and can also magically prevent hit-and-runs. I'm sure the 3-foot Indiana law will be a great comfort as you shop for a new fork. Happy cycling, and may the odds be ever in your favor.