Trek 4500 Bike - Broken Frame?

nomadic4500

I bought what i thought was a decent trek 4500 on Sunday.

The seller told me the bottom bracket needed replacing anf that it would cost œ45 or so.

Basically it appears the hole in which the bottom bracket sits on the frame has been ovalised. And the replacement bottom bracket when put into the hole does not grip due to the frame. I understand this is partly due to damage on the thread and also a change in shape of the hole

Accoring to my local trek dealer who seems pretty good this now makes my frame useless, and certainly the pedals wont remain stable.

I am left without a working mountain bike, what are my options?

1) a new frame - can i transplant parts succesfully to any trek frame? mine is a 18 inch ish frame with 11/16 head tube

2) breaking my bike in the manner I would do with a car? is this viable and are the parts value worth the hassle of breaking it??

I understand that i bought this as sold as seen, and realise I probably made a mistake in buying it in the first place, oh hindsight!!!

Sadly my first attempt at a decent mountain bike has backfired. As you may have noticed I have really only ridden mountain bikes and never really maintained them.

Any ideas?

Jinja Ninja

Change of frame i'd say. MTB parts are fairly interchangable, and if you go for another trek frame that would probably make it easier. TBH with out seeing the frame i can't say wheter its useable or not, but from the description its a gonner.
I wouldn't bother braking and selling, just re build witha new frame.

I'd also go find the guy that sold it to you and give him a black eye [:D]

<hr noshade size="1">
Theres only one return, and it ain't of the "king" Its of the Jedi

"Frankie's little Bro"[:o]

nomadic4500

thanks, where do i picked up a frame? tried ebay not looking like theres loads about. anywhere else?

Unknown

Not sure many of the lower end trek frames are available aftermarket. Could try contacting the distributor for advice: tell them your story, they may let you have one for cost plus VAT or something. if not, plenty of other decent frames worth having where the majority of parts will fit. things like headset, seatpost/clamp may need to be replaced, and front mech.

<center><font size="1"><font color="red">GT Zaskar LE</font id="red">
<font color="red">GT Ruckus</font id="red">
<font color="red">Me!</font id="red">
<font color="purple">MYSPACE</font id="purple"><hr noshade size="1"><font color="red">Park Tools - help and instructions for all general bike fixes</font id="red">
<font color="red">Sheldon Brown - info about anything and everything</font id="red"></font id="size1"></center>

tinytjf

I didn't think Trek sold frames separately although I may be wrong. In that case, ebay or singletrackworld may be your best bet. Otherwise, you're in the market for a new frame and that's when the choice becomes endless. I'm guessing your budget is fairly limited so let's say 300.

For that have a look at On-One, Kinesis, Merlin/Rock Lobster and maybe some more. You'll have to descide on material as well - aluminium or steel. I'd personally go for steel but many will say aluminium. You can't go far wrong with an RL Tig Team SL for 300 notes.

And ditto the black eye sentiment.

<hr noshade size="1"><font size="1"><b>Reviews</b>
Trails, Kit and Road trips

<b>Pics</b>
My Steed *Updated*
Trails and Road Trips

Deer Park Fence - 2
Tim - 0

Quarry Fence - 1
Tim - 0</font id="size1">

Jinja Ninja

Try free paper adds, keep on ebay. If you can get a alpha 4500 then you've got yourself a nice light frame.
Also see if you can get friendly with a LBS. Most of my bargains have come from a good friend in the shop.

<hr noshade size="1">
Theres only one return, and it ain't of the "king" Its of the Jedi

"Frankie's little Bro"[:o]

Unknown

I have to say it... GT Zaskar for a couple of hundred notes ;-)

<center><font size="1"><font color="red">GT Zaskar LE</font id="red">
<font color="red">GT Ruckus</font id="red">
<font color="red">Me!</font id="red">
<font color="purple">MYSPACE</font id="purple"><hr noshade size="1"><font color="red">Park Tools - help and instructions for all general bike fixes</font id="red">
<font color="red">Sheldon Brown - info about anything and everything</font id="red"></font id="size1"></center>

blaze591

Where did you buy it from? Ebay? If it seller has mis-sold the item then you should go back to the seller and demand a refund or at least come to some arrangement.

<center><font color="red"><h5>2007 Specialized Stumpjumper FSR Elite </font id="red">-<font color="blue">2006 Phantom 1203 Miss Leadin'</center></font id="blue"></h5>

nomadic4500

i will have a word with him, see what he ll do.

Though under the old buyer beware ... I wont expect anything though.

Thanks for the advice everyone, should have joined here before I bought the bike in the first place.

blaze591

Not sure about buyer beware - he told you it was repairable? And it isn't? That's mis-selling in my book. Did you pay with Paypal? Claim under "goods not as described". Have a go, you can't loose anything?

<center><font color="red"><h5>2007 Specialized Stumpjumper FSR Elite </font id="red">-<font color="blue">2006 Phantom 1203 Miss Leadin'</center></font id="blue"></h5>

Unknown

Shameless plug time - I've got a 2006 Cape Wrath Disk frame I'll be selling when I get round to giving it a clean. I paid œ40 for it which is all i'll be after + postage.

Dom

<font color="red">Photos</font id="red"> Maxlight XC<font color="red">></font id="red"><font color="black">120</font id="black">

juankerrwmb

Malt 1 frame could be had for œ67 or œ99 with finishing kit.

nomadic4500

Sorry really new to mountain biking beyond riding a really rubbish one.

Whats Malt 1? and what does the finishing kit finish?

Andy B

merlincycles.co.uk make the Merlin Malt 1, very good frame for xc/trail use, the finishing kit is usually stuff like seatpost/seatpost clamp/stem/bars.

On the Malt 1 the finishing kit is: seatpost, seatpost clamp & headset.

<hr noshade size="1"><font size="1"><center><font color="green"><i>Official Forum Potty Mouth 2007</i></font id="green"></center></font id="size1"><font size="1"><hr noshade size="1"><center><font color="violet">My Flickr Album, With <b>new</b> updated bike pics</font id="violet">
<font color="green">Me & My Bikes</font id="green"> <font color="orange">Orange Bikes</font id="orange"> <font color="blue">Howies© </font id="blue"><font color="black">moredirt photo gallery</font id="black">
<font color="purple">'05 C2C Pic's, </font id="purple"><font color="red"> Red Bull Soap Box Race </font id="red"><font color="black">&</font id="black"><font color="brown"> Snowboarding Pics</font id="brown"></center></font id="size1">