Cracked? Really????????

2manyoranges

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I have been looking for a medium COTIC frame to build up. And this came onto ebay today.


https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Cotic-Soul-f ... SwclVbqAkw


Note the position of the ‘crack’. AND WELDED BRACES???!!!!

Said ‘crack’ seems to correspond almost exactly to the appearance of the kind of hacksaw gap which would appear should a frame be hacked through to release it from a lock. Of course, top tubes always crack here, NEVER at the junction of TT and head tube ... (!!!?!! Wtf).

Anyone recognise this frame...........?
 
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Re:

Indeed - should read

‘For sale - several sections of Reynolds 853 tubing, currently welded together in the shape of a bicycle frame...’
 
That's definitely a crack not a cut.

A toptube replacement is only £85 from Bob Jackson so with the current bid that represents a decent total outlay for a Cotic Soul (completed items on ebay show plenty have sold for over £200).
It's also probably the easiest tube to replace (easy access to remove old top tube and clean up the headtube and seat tube, new tube only needs a simple notch on either end, should slip in place pretty easily) so "Could be repaired by someone with the correct skills and equipment" is pretty accurate.

I have a top tube sitting in my garage that I cut out of a damaged frame that'd maybe fit but I only have a basic stick welder. If I had a tig machine I could be tempted.
 
Re:

I was wondering whether it was actually a crack, as is expect to see stress marks where it had been prized open to get the lock through.
 
Re:

....well I did communicate pretty strongly in the post title and first post that I was sceptical about this being a crack. I hope I didn’t jump to conclusions too quickly but I have never seen a crack which simply occurs mid top tube in steel - OK, times when the bars have flipped around and dented the TT and the dent has then propagated a crack. Sure, weird spontaneous cracking in carbon frames ... but in 853 halfway along a TT, never in 853 in my experience but open to correction. Plenty of failures where there is a propagation point - bend, braze on, etc. And plenty of failures through poor brazing and welding at joints. Big chainstay failures, of course, particularly after damage from chainsuck. And I have seen tubes cut by a hacksaw and then prised part to get a U Lock hasp through, leaving no visible damage to the tubes other than the hacksaw cut....

Best one I have experienced (other than a friend who came back to his bike to find someone cutting through the TT and the thief saying F off it’s my bike now....!!) was Jo Burt, who had the drops and shifters allen-key-lifted from his bike, only to be helping Russell in his shop the next day, and having a guy come in with said cable-dangling set up and trying to sell it to him....that was ‘interesting’ to say the least. On that occasion the police WERE interested.
 
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