Broke the Fat Chance

mattpayne

mattpayne

Retro Guru
After nearly shaking myself to bits on the pace, I pulled the Shock-a-Billy out of retirement to tackle a couple of Strava segments that featured a whole bunch of small hi frequency bumps and ruts, needless to say, other than being as sketchy as fook (or is that nimble? I'm never sure!!) it was great to be back on her... Oh and totally walked the segments too! Chalk up another couple of KOM's to retro steel!

Treated it to a lovely wash only to discover....

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Gutted was not the word! Ive had the bike since 1997 and to be fair, shes not been treated with kid gloves, raced for a number of years and generally ridden and used pretty hard... but crushing to actually break it!!

I have no idea how long it had been like that, its not the stiffist of designs at the best of times!
 
Gutted for you. It seems to be a weakness of the fat frames, rigid or suspension. Iirc it's simply down to the fact that the BB shell has no drain hole within the seat tube so water collects in there and eats away at the weakest point which is the tube join.

It is repairable, though probably not cheap, but cheaper than a new frame. I had a rigid one that a previous owner had repaired by replacing the entire seat tube. Others I've seen have a sleeve repair.

It is probably worth doing if you are attached to the bike though.
 
Sad news, though you have had plenty of miles and smiles out of it, and you found it between rides and not the hard way of during.
 
The bike had an amazing life by the sounds of it, and you enjoyed countless adventures together, cherish the memories and the fact you had such a great bike.
Nothing lasts forever.
 
Any thin walled premium steel frames of this era are prone to this, Yeti FROs, Oranges too etc. Get the lower section of the seat tube replaced to preserve the 29.4mm post section and carry on abusing it 😁
 
I have loved riding it over the years, for the time being its in its bag in the loft, at some point there will be a repair 😊 probably coinciding with a bit of a refresh. But that's hard, the patina and flaking stickers all hold a certain charm 😊

But need to recover after buying the Ti Sync 👍
 
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