Repairing a cracked aluminim frame

rachel.jones1985
rachel.jones1985 Posts: 5
in Workshop
Hi, Does anyone know a place where you can get an aluminium frame repaired. cracked in one place and broken all the way through in another. South east of england

thanks

Comments

  • First.Aspect
    First.Aspect Posts: 17,379
    Is there any point? If its fatigued in one place, will it not be well on the way elsewhere?
  • edward.s
    edward.s Posts: 230
    Repairs are likely to cause more issues than they solve in all honesty. Any welding process will create enough heat to ruin the heat treat of the frame (if its treated) and will likely cause more stress risers leading to further cracks. On an already cracked (and presumably fatigued) frame its not really worth it

    Unless its something rare and amazing you likely won't thrash/ride much then its probably safer for the skip I'm afraid.
  • MidlandsGrimpeur2
    MidlandsGrimpeur2 Posts: 2,127
    I wouldn't try to have a repair on aluminium once cracked. Basically it is weaker when compared to steel or titanium. Even with a repair, the frame has been compromised and is liable to break again (I run an engineering company which makes everything out of metal, so I have a bit of knowledge).

    in short, bin it and get a new frame.
  • imposter2.0
    imposter2.0 Posts: 12,028
    rachel.jones1985 said:

    Hi, Does anyone know a place where you can get an aluminium frame repaired. cracked in one place and broken all the way through in another. South east of england

    thanks

    As others have said - it's only good for the scrap metal bin at your local recycling centre. Or if you have a local up-cycling project in your area, they might be able to make some household ornaments out of it, or something.
  • imposter2.0
    imposter2.0 Posts: 12,028
    edward.s said:

    Unless its something rare and amazing you likely won't thrash/ride much then its probably safer for the skip I'm afraid.

    Even if it's an early 90s Klein, Yeti or Funk MTB frame - probably still not safe to repair it...

  • Munsford0
    Munsford0 Posts: 680
    I'm guessing this is in some way related to your other recent post??

    "Off road mountain bike for a too large husband"
  • rachel.jones1985
    rachel.jones1985 Posts: 5
    yes, even if we could get the cracked frame bike fixed (which doesn't sound like an option) he'd use it for gentle cycling into town to put less strain on it
  • rachel.jones1985
    rachel.jones1985 Posts: 5
    thanks for everyone's advice
  • kevin.marman
    kevin.marman Posts: 7
    Hi Rachel. I wish I could help. I was going to upgrade the groupset on my trusty Specialized road bike a few months back - until it was pointed out to me by the better heads on here that, at 20 years old, the frame was long past it's replace-by date in terms of safety certainty. I've looked after it and it's in pretty good shape. There are areas of concern, though, around the high-stress points: bottom bracket, chain and seat stays. I enquired about repairs, but got the same answer from a few places I approached: even with a repair, at that age there's no saying when and where the next crack or break will appear. So I had to bite the bullet in the end, and go for a new bike. Peace of mind as much as anything else. It was a chunk of savings I didn't want to use, but I use a bike too much to want to take chances. If I'd had the damage you're describing, I wouldn't have thought twice about it.

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