That is a very strange crack, but the hole is even stranger, it almost looks like you came in contact with a rock, scraped the side and then somehow it scraped the pulley boss off, so the combination of hitting something and pulling off that boss led to the crack.So, here's my bike.
It's a nice bike, and I've ridden it as intended for 35+ years after having it made to measure all that time ago.
As I mentioned a few years ago on here this was a custom build, basically a Phantom, being a full Max OR frameset, but with a sloping tt and straight Max forks as that's what I wanted.
It's fast as hell, accelerates and climbs brilliantly and still looks fab to my eyes.
Sadly, as you can see from the second pic it's developed a crack at the base of the down tube. It actually goes a lot farther around, and seems to have started near that pulley boss.
So, what to do. I think I'd be looking at a tidy weld up rather than tube replacement and full respray, but I want the frame to last another 35 years, so may have to accept that it would be better to strip the lot and deal with any issues at all.
Any thoughts?
That is too bad, I hope Roberts will fix it and can figure out a way to do it and still look good. Even if they have to replace the tube and respray the entire bike, so what? The bike will look brand new, you can't buy a new bike like that for anywhere near the price it will cost to fix it, so just get it fixed, and keep your pride and joy.