So this happened today....
smiley_boy2501
Posts: 126
Out around Yorkshire aiming for over 100km for festive 500. My first day off after several nights and I'd been excited for this ride.
On the winter bike. Fast descent into a steep uphill just grinding over the top out of the saddle. Loud snapping sound and the bike felt a bit odd.
Stopped and checked it over but no spokes had gone and nothing else obvious.
Got on again but felt really spongy like I was on a full sus.
Anyway this had happened
Straight through.
It has done around 20000km I suppose.
Time for a new frame or do you reckon I can gaffer tape it?
On the winter bike. Fast descent into a steep uphill just grinding over the top out of the saddle. Loud snapping sound and the bike felt a bit odd.
Stopped and checked it over but no spokes had gone and nothing else obvious.
Got on again but felt really spongy like I was on a full sus.
Anyway this had happened
Straight through.
It has done around 20000km I suppose.
Time for a new frame or do you reckon I can gaffer tape it?
0
Comments
-
Ouch. Nasty.
20000km? Nothing for a bike frame (though clearly too much for this one!).
I can only offer you this legendary story to cheer you up. Famed George 'McNasty' Berwick snapped his frame in a similar place around 1000km into a 1500km event in Germany. Through the application of cable ties, he managed to ride the bike 500km to the end of the event (with a half inch gap and a fairly terrifying sway to the frame apparently):
0 -
i reckon you d need to wire wrap it first then apply fiber glass, be as good as new :idea:
Snapped frames are quite stable really, i did 2 laps (about 40miles) of a div 's course a while back with a broken DS chain stay, i thought i had a slow puncture/buckled wheel
and didnt want to stop as i was in the lead group, we were hitting 45mph in places. 0 -
Another long-distance chap, with a broken top tube on an old fixed frame. He only had to ride it 20 miles home, so a bit of rope was found and off he went (very carefully and not out of the saddle!0 -
All good ideas.
But any excuse for something new.
Now which frame to buy.....0 -
This brought back memories from over 50 years ago. On a lovely sunny day I snapped a Freddie Grub frame in the same place, renolds 531 as they all were then. A couple of mates and I were sprinting for some arbitrary point while climbing the Cat and Fiddle from Macc. I thumbed a lift back to Macc and my mate road back down holding my bike with one hand. I got the train with the bike back to Gorton and Openshaw station and walked home. ( sigh ) Life was so simple then.0
-
Buff out with t-cut and put it on eBay.0
-
I blame wiggle0
-
Just out of interest what causes this? Is it metal fatigue after the same part of the frame is constantly flexing? Never seen in before.
Does steel suffer from fatigue easier than aluminium, titanium or carbon fibre?"The Prince of Wales is now the King of France" - Calton Kirby0 -
Just out of interest what causes this? Is it metal fatigue after the same part of the frame is constantly flexing? Never seen in before.
Does steel suffer from fatigue easier than aluminium, titanium or carbon fibre?
No, the other way round - steel is more resistant to small stresses without causing failure compared to aluminium (but aluminium frames are usually overbuilt to compensate). Titanium is like steel in that regard https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatigue_limit
The bike in OP looks like aluminium to me (?). I've certainly seen more snapped aluminium frames than steel.0 -
^Indeed
The two (steel) bikes I posted had both been in use by (uber) high mileage riders for many years (the black one with the snapped top tube, at least 2 decades).0
