Alan Record Headtube crack

saarf · Aug 30, 2013

i recently picked up this Alan record as a donor bike for (hopefully) an upcoming build,
the headtube lug has a hairline crack on it, smack down the center of the bottom part which I was thinking of unbonding and getting repaired.
A friend suggested a compound for aluminum filled in the hairline could suffice, is this possible?, and there after, is the frame set re saleable?
Cheers

saarf · Aug 30, 2013

seat post extremely long to accommodate me riding it back to saarf H.Q.

tokaicarl · Aug 30, 2013

i bought an alan record frame with forks from holland without headset in it-- had a super record headset fitted by bike shop then 2 weeks later a crack appeared in the head tube lug!week later crack was all the way down the lug-well pissed off -- got my brothers frame builder to try and glue and put a metal collar round the lug-- been riding it and seems ok...
not sure how the crack started it wasn't there when i bought the frame-- cheers anyway

saarf · Aug 30, 2013

great , thanks for your imput,
the vendor never declared the fault in the original listing, and had pretty crudley painted it to mask it.
i knew to look ther from previous experience with an alan,
due to his lack of clarity, I kicked him up in the proverbials metaphorically and gave him 2 thirds of what he what his was originally asking,
I'll clean the paint off and check the damage and go from there, if I use the compound to seal and sand it may be ok

as a piece of "installation art"

:facepalm:

saarf · Aug 31, 2013

the gruppo was 88 chorus bar the brake levers and seat post

danson67 · Sep 1, 2013

The steel band method could be done without splitting out the headtube. No point in gluing the crack if the band is in place.

If you could split out the headtube, it probably would be weldable, though you'd need to find out which aluminium alloy the casting is from.

The tubing itself is 'Dural', so I'm assuming 2014, but that's a forging alloy, not casting.
ny ALAN specialists around who know the alloys? Can't find any references.

All the best,

saarf · Sep 2, 2013

thanks, would the collar have to be welded? and if fitted, would the frame be resaleable?
the whole lot cost me 100 euros, so I wouldn't want to spend to much on a repair if not really worth it.

cheers

hamster · Sep 2, 2013

The key thing is to take away the tension across the crack and squeeze it shut, even whne riding it will be under compression, so will not propagate. The best way is an exterior support ring. Ideally this should be undersize, heated and then shrunk over the tube end. A machine shop should be able to make the ring.

saarf · Sep 2, 2013

aye, excellent, many thanks,I have a good friend who's an engineer and should be able to do that, the bottom headset cup is stuck, I got the top out, but don't want to use the extractor as the bang may spit the lug, I'll wait until it's had a ring I think.
cheers

saarf · Sep 2, 2013

Just spoke to Mr Engineer, we can do it, for beer!

here's the lug, the crack is just starting to show on the inside a few mm

Alan Record Headtube crack

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