Frame failure experiences

[bikeworkshop]

Had a lavadome crack on the top tube about two inches away from the seatpost.

Frames can crack on the butt, often a couple of inches away from the weld joint.

 

[novocaine]

Frames can crack on the butt, often a couple of inches away from the weld joint.

hehe, butt.

overdrawn tubing tends to go at the thin edge, pretty common mode failure on cold drawn tubing.

 

[Totoro]

i thought we established that i wish to exist in a bubble, a vacuum, another dimension where frames do not crack, snap or dent

thanks

woz made me buy titanium and if they don't last forever i am suing

Same, just last night somebody in the inn was trying to goad me into buying one too!
I was looking for a titanium Kona too for the last few months that would fit me but didn't find the right one.

 

[Tootyred]

Has a few dents and bends...including my 89 team marin in a dropout totalling crash.

The only frame I've ever properly bust was a Raleigh record sprint....with the oval tubing. The whole thing kinda parted company with its bottom bracket, whilst going down hill off road....( pre mountsin bike trackie type thing). It was not pretty.

Im my ignorance we arc welded it (at the same time i fixed mums ironing board). It was terrible, not straight, but lived to ride again. But hot for long as it broke (surprise suprise).

But it was a learning curve and very odd sensation...I still remember my feet kinda moving back and sideways in a very unsettling manner.....just prior to a pile of carnage.

 

[Henne]

BITD, had a Raleigh Mustang which I used as my paper round mule and commuter to school. After three years of everyday use, the rear canti boss snapped off when applying the brakes. Think it may have been weakened when the bike fell over on to its side and the non profile cantis took the full force. Anyway, got the frame replaced under Raleigh's 15 year f+f warranty after a bit of a battle with the local Raleigh dealer. Raleigh didn't have a 'stang in size 19" only a Magnum. The dealer still charged me £50 to swap over the parts in 1992.

 

[Woz]

I honestly think you got the better part of that deal compared to today.

 

[Silverfish]

I remember selling a pair of Bullet Bros Zzyzx forks to Nige at John Atkins circa 96!97 and he rang me to ask if the forks would work on a super lightweight full carbon Trek OCLV hardtail. I said absolutely not, I was pretty sure it would void his warranty. The guy who wanted them didn’t care and just bought them anyway. I think the head angle was about 64 degrees
AFAIR that was the coolest bike in Leamington Spa for the next few years at least

 

[nicklej]

Must be bad luck because never had issues with bikes, of any kind, until a stint in the last few years. The last 5 years have seen 4 frames of mine die. Three carbon and one Ti. A pair of carbon frames both snapped on the LHS seatstays, one snapped on the drive side chainstay and my Ti frame's downtube looked like a tin can which had been shot! Happy to say my current and only bike right now has been really good so hoping to get many years out of it Fortunately, all the carbon frames broke going up steep climbs so no harm was done to me but dodged a bullet with the Ti frame, that thing coulda killed me!

 

[bikeworkshop]

The only frame I've ever properly bust was a Raleigh record sprint....with the oval tubing. The whole thing kinda parted company with its bottom bracket, whilst going down hill off road.... It was not pretty.

Those oval tubed raleighs, often reynolds 501, are very brittle. I think they got too hot on the hearth. They break all over the place, and if a customer asks me for a repair I advise them not to bother because it'll break somewhere else very soon.
Over the bb, under the seat cluster lug, by the dropouts, top of the seatstays, across the headtube..

 

[vtwinvince]

I've only had one frame fail, and it was a Bianchi which developed a crack in the lug at the bottom of the seat tube, so got a local builder to fix it. I sold my Rocky Mountain Titanium to a guy in England because it was a small frame and with the steer tube stack I was worried about it cracking.