The broken frames thread!

I have only ever broken one frame.....but even then it was a my bonty bolted to the roof of a car and then driven into a carport. The seat tube took the full whack and never showed any trouble for a couple of years. The Trek versions came out with a sleeve in the seat-tube junction....for carports of course.
Carports are roofed but not enclosed structures to protect autos.

Must have been VERY lucky...

Not the lightest chap around, like to ride fairly fast... Have owned 2 bonded Dyna Tech ti's, only broke one gear lever boss off the right hand side of the down tube on my roadie (touch wood).

Also owned Shogun, Orange, Pace, Peugeot (road) and never had a problem there either (touch more wood)

Heard a lot of horror stories though, every one knows someone who knows someone who still has half a cooks crank in their calf muscle and a set of cookie cutter scars in their thigh to rival Maori tribal tattoo's

i bust my Diamond Back Axis Pro at the 91 or 92 Plymouth Grundigs - on the final descent into the arena in teh Saturday qualifier I hit the final jump a little too hard.

I've only broken one. Cannondale Raven. The spine parted company with the rest of at the seat post clamps :evil: Replaced under warranty, best bike i ever sold

similar to radar's in a way. never broke anything but had a fun one with my '92 avalanche comin home from school 13 or so years ago. the school was one of three on a busy main road and they supposedly staggered the leavin times so we didn't all kill each other but somehow the tractors pickin up the kids at the posh school always arriveed as we were leavin... was ridin home one night and next thing i remember i woke up in hospital. turns out that as i was going on the outside of cars (as you should cos the road was at a standstill) i got hit by some bint in a landcruiser turning left into the school. Actually i hit her (or the thing anyway) cos she turned straight in front of me - looking for cars but not cycles which is obviously perfectly acceptable when yer round schools - and flew over the bonnet. the road was sealed both ends by police cars and bikes and i had an ambulance trip. when i got home in lots of pain and was lyin in bed my dad came up to say the police were downstairs and wanted to talk to me. turns out the woman had convinced them that it was all my fault and they were very angry but in her charitable state (it must have been really traumatic for her) she had decided to drop any charges against me. At which point i laughed and my dad got angry at the f**kers who get away with everything blah blah blah (maybe that's where the sloagan comes from?!) and i realised that my paper round would have to fund expensive repairs (but at least i didn't have to pay for her new wing, mirror, paintjob etc). in the end one of the dinner ladies (who lived on site cos she was caretaker's wife) had carried my bike back and stuck it in her living room. bringing this back on board with topic though all i had was a completely mashed wheel and lots of scrathes. the frame and even the forks were completely fine. gts weigh a ton, but they don't make 'em like they used to!! as an aside (sorry for the essay) this episode was taken to heart by the safey campaigners and the following year we all had a bridge across the river and a dedicated cycle track so we didn't have to risk the evils of the road. Taht sounds arrogant and i'm not suggesting it was down to me in anyway but it was one of many incedents that all helped towards a cycle route which can only be good.

Drunk rode my Cannondale SM1000 into a ditch and bent the frame in about '96. Truly gutted. Still have all the parts in my Dad's workshed including said frame with 95/74 geometry :cry:

Splayed F7 forks on my C-16R too, had to pay to replace them, despite my JRA story.. I'd launched it down a 6ft drop and landed flat.. Eesh.. :?

I'll take it from the oldest to the newest - none of these were big crashes, more wear and tear issues!

1990ish Trek 8900 - Bonded Alluminium, black with splatter paint. Bent the rear mech hanger repeatedly and so badly that it snapped off - also damage to chainstays (2 years use). Put me off alloy bikes for a long time.
1992 Rocky Mountain Blizzard - the bottom bracket ovalised so badly that a bottom bracket wouldn't stay in (7 months).
1992 Rocky Mountain Blizzard - warranty replacement for above - brake boss was squint, and the bottom bracket shell ovalised again (3 months).
1993 Rocky Mountain Blizzard - warranty replacement for above - Brazed junction of the seat-tube to seat-stay cracked (1 year). Warranty repair and I sold it - lost confidence...
1994 Trek OCLV 9900 Pro Issue, Nude Carbon - Broke off one of the bonded on rear brake bosses (6 weeks)
1994 Trek OCLV 9900 Pro Issue, Nude Carbon - warranty replacement for above - Bottom bracket insert fell out (6 months). Trek gave me my money back - "Perhaps these are not the best bikes for you" - that wasn't what the rep thought when he sold me them. This was my only bike when I was competetively racing and saw a scary amount of use. I remember it as one of the best riding bikes ever - so stiff and solid at low speeds and yet compliant and zingy when really hammering
1995 Kona Explosif - Cracked at the driveside dropout (11 years) - I still have this frame in regular use after Charlie Ralph at Alves put track ends on it. So much better than the Rocky's :shock:
1997 Intense Uzzi SL - Seat-tower snapped off - (4 months) - Chainstays cracked (5 years), Seatstays cracked and dropout snapped (5 years) - Main frame still good and hanging on wall with all the broken bits replaced - I love this frame.

I would be here forever if we did components...

Frames etc I've seen broken through what I would call normal use and not crashes...

1994 - 2 Pace frames (bottom bracket and headtube welds)
1990-92 - 2 answer accutrax forks (these seem to bend at the crown rather easily)
1994 - 2 Kona Kula's (Headtube crack, and parted seat-tube)
1992 - Lots of Saracen E-stay frames (cracks, everywhere)
1990's - 2 Trek Bonded Frames - Carbon, Alloy-Carbon, and Alloy-Ally, bottom bracket to seat tube usually un-glues
1990's - Orange Aluminium O - Headtube cracked off

My bikes have always had a hammering at the races etc, but usually my stuff broke in the local forest - back in the day I only had the one bike which did everything, but now when I am heading to "that" forest I tend to take a Balfa Minuteman with DH components

I love Mountain Biking

3 so far doh!, what mountin bike frame but no idea of what make as when i got it it had no stickers on, I got it offered me cheap and just brought it for the lx groupset that came with it but turned out to be a good frame, lug welded with reynolds tubing. Anyway nothing exciting was riding the ex girlfriend home decided to speed off for a few minutes jumped off a curb and turns out someone had been playing with my front quick release, so off came my wheel at speed. totalled my forks front end of the frame my front wheel and some how managed to bend the chain ring with my feet in the inpact to the floor (was bio pace though so no loss).

Other 2 were bmx frames, first one a cheap falcon jobbie, that cracked from jumping down some steps and other was a auburn fram rather nice too until I was drunk in the rain at shopping centre one night took a corner too fast slid and ended up with the frame and me sliding into a big metal post bent all of the down tube. Still got pics at home of the auburn actually, other 2 just got binned.

I've broken my own frame...

I landed flat on my back ones and crushed the T-5 on my spine.

But luckily the bike was fine

Orange Vit T, cracked around the bottom bracket shell. Orange didn't want to know because it had flat pedals on and Judy DH forks (whopping 80mm travel) so must have been misused. Had it repaired and its still going fine.

DNA Titanium, had three of these, all with defects. Absoloutely appalling customer service as well at the time.

Foes Weasel, snapped in half. To be fair it was a long travel xc frame and I treated it like a DH frame. Foes offered me a new frame at half retail price for a 6 year old frame :thumbs up:


Components, Judy DH forks - bent steerer (before they rushed out that metal bung thing that went inside the steerer...), DX hubs - snapped the axle, UN72 BB snapped (but I still use these, wear and tear I guess), Stratos MX6 forks - bent stanchions. Haven't broken anything for a while, not sure whether thats because I've got smoother, parts have got better or I just choose more suitable parts