Bikes that have broken

What frames have people broken over the years?

We all have (probably) broken forks and components but what about the heart and soul of the bike itself?

List here:

- Raleigh Dynatech titanium lugged frame (headtube crumpled)

- Kona Fire mountain - headtube now has steeper angle (ridden into car)

91 specialized stumpjumper comp, totally my fault, piled it into a 4ft deep rut, bent the back end.

92 specialized s-works steel. chainsuck which went thru the tube!. unfortunately all this was found after I'd sold it! (bead blasted for respray!)

93 fat chance titanium. learning curve bike for me, increasing confidence & learning bike handling skills no problems taking off for massive air time & wheelie drops(& I pulled a lot of it!) but landing werent too smooth, coupled with masses of free time (uni days!) that bike had some major abuse/ mileage.. anyhow.. cracked a weld at the bottom bracket/ downtube which started spreading up the downtube by the time I'd got home! 93 -98, R.I.P 005T2M FAT TI luckily wendyl sorted me out the replacement

Snapped

I snapped a Trek something or other on the Slickrock at Moab, Utah. Fortunately, it was a hire bike and the believed that I hadn't been the root cause so I got my money back. Didn't stop me from having to walk back to the shop though!

The down tube snapped clean just below the headset - very clear sign of an abused bike. It makes a ping like a cable snapping, but doesn't do much for the handling. I guess it would be the same effect as taking a pair of cable cutters to a Slingshot ....

Not many considering

1988 Raleigh Mirage. Hit a tree.

Eddy Merckx Corsa. Hit a car.

I went the same way as scant, by the time I was a keen MTB'er and starting to improve my technical skills (i.e. hooning about) I was on an expensive lightweight frameset (My Vit T)
Heres an old pic of how it looked a few weeks after I first got it
http://images.fotopic.net/?iid=y4y0f8&outx=600&quality=70
Notice the lack of a big chainring as I was learning trials moves on it and kept bashing it!
After about two years the biggest change was ditching the unreliable Pace RC35's for a set of Judy DH's and fitting a new innovation called riser bars
http://images.fotopic.net/?iid=y4y0fc&outx=600&quality=70
Nice Rock ring! Looks bloomin horrible now but most people only had one bike and it got used for everything, xc, trials, I even entered a DH race on it and finished mid-field. Learnt how to dirt jump on it as well
http://images.fotopic.net/?iid=y809ha&outx=600&quality=70
Which is bloody scary looking back especially considering the length of the stem on it (that broke too BTW)
Anyway inevitably the frame couldn't take any more and after about 4 years of hard riding a crack started to appear around the BB/chainstay weld. For a 3lb race frame I figured that was pretty good going! I couldn't part with the frame though and now its been repaired with a lifetime guarantee on the weld so its back on the trails again

I learnt my lesson and bought tougher frames after that. After a few unhappy experiences with hardtail frames (none rode as well as the Vit T) I bought a second hand full susser and began my second learning curve. Yep you can jump pretty far and high with a 6" travel Foes Weasel under you. The Foes was ahead of its time but it wasn't designed to take the punishment a 6" travel frame inspires, especially not as fork travel increased from the 80mm Judy DH's it was designed around to the 5" Bomber forks that eventually found there way onto it. After about 2 years it was RIP Foes
http://images.fotopic.net/?iid=yb4ilb&outx=600&quality=70
Ain't no welding that.
I think the main problem wasn't that these older frames weren't tough enough for riding but that people were using one bike for everything and it was still the time when lightweight came first. It still makes me laugh looking back when I see people posting messages asking if a bike is suitable for a certain discipline.
Sorry for the long post.
Steve.

Brilliant post!

Im surprised that Orange last as long as it did looking at what it endured!

I agree with stevet1. The bikes weren't sh*t, but back then no DJ etc specific was made. For todays kids there is.

In my neighbourhood people -me including- were really into drops, jumps, trial and that kind of things. Though Zaskars are great one can't expect they will last when you are jumping of those little powerhouses all the time.

Those were my rides around mid 90s:





Built to last. 4130 stem, cut Sunn NK trials bar, mainly proven XT. On earlier rides I have had a Renthall motorcross bar, but I didn't like it as it was to wide. Of those 2 I still have the below. The above started to develop noises what was enough for Koga to replace it by a new SkyRunner. I still have that one and it is mint I became a grown up

Again I state that quite a lot stuff was pretty though and that eventually everything can break, but for what it is worth:
- 'Dales regularly did no longer than e few months
- Zaskars differed, many lasted pretty long. Guarantee was slow due to no official import.
- The Koga Elevated Chainstay design could stand abuse for about 6-12 months. They kept replacing them - excellent guarentee! New one within a week.
- A guy who trialed on Zaskars once acquired the smallest TerraRunner (like the black one I posted 2 weeks ago but 42cm). He never managed to break it, but at the end he switched back to Zaskar as he considered it to long and heavy for his purposes. The Zaskar was an excellent handler for trial.
- One incident: Foes Fab - 2 weeks...

I've only had one frame fail on me. My Mk1 Cannondale Raven, the skeleton parted company at the seat tower. Hadn't noticed whilst i was riding. Noticed it a few days later, just walking past it. It was replaced under warranty though.

geez, what do you guys do??
Nothing ever breaks for me, feeling kinda left out :cry:


Nice blue seat skewer elev...