Cannondale content-is this bike still usable?

[boxxer]

Phone Orange and ask them if they'll have a look at it, they can reweld and heat treat any Ali frame within reason for a fairly decent price if it's required.

I know as I spoke to them about my bike after the bloke powdercoating it baked it too hot and figured it would be wise (although I didn't and 5 years on it's still going strong - different powdercoaters next time though!

Think Orange are the folks who deal with the majority of warrenty repairs on all manuf frames in the UK (just you don'thear about it)

 

[clockworkgazz]

Thanks Boxxer for the info. however my problem is keeping the budget low, the frame cost me very little and I'm sure orange will not be cheap compared to the frame cost

On another note- do you fancy a trip to glentress tomorrow, load of retro/nonretro bikers are meeting up. See the rides and meets section if you fancy- would be nice to meet you.

Gary

 

[clockworkgazz]

Just got confirmation from Kaiser that it is indeed a crack :cry:

However I will be looking at speaking to a top welder fella to see if he feels the frame can be saved. I know that this is prob. against some of your advice but I want to try and save the old girl and given the nambie pambie riding I do I hope she will survive :roll:

will keep you posted.

 

[Anthony]

Boxxer's post is interesting in a number of ways. The crack does clearly require welding and the welding will soften the metal, so clearly the repair will need to be heat-treated to get the strength back. But I have read that the baking process in powdercoating is a pretty effective form of heat-treating in itself it so happens, so you could maybe talk to your painter about what temperature/duration he's going to use to bake the paint and see whether that would do the trick.

 

[clockworkgazz]

Ahh but here is the rub anthony- I am just going to polish her up after the repair, so no further heat treatment to the frame I'm afraid- however the welder may be able to keep the temp low to reduce the weakening.

 

[Anthony]

Ahh but here is the rub anthony- I am just going to polish her up after the repair, so no further heat treatment to the frame I'm afraid- however the welder may be able to keep the temp low to reduce the weakening.

It'll be weakened, everybody says so - but if the powder-coating bake is anywhere near to a heat-treatment bake as they say, how much would your local powder-coater charge you to put your frame in his oven with no powder on it along with some other items that he was painting? Not too much, maybe? Just a thought.

 

[clockworkgazz]

good thinking batman........

will look into this, cheers.

 

[kaiser]

Gazz the best way to weld ally is to preheat it then weld. After that it could be put back in the oven. Though this is obviously taking the repair to another level. Which reminds me that the frame would probably have to be stripped and headset removed, or the grease will run out. Could also do with an old rear hub to jig the droputs when its being welded. Sorry, getting a bit more complicated when you start to think through the job.

 

[IbocProSX]

Is it a rider?

I was thinking along the lines of repairing cracks in windshields. Drill a small hole at the crack ends to stop it growing and then adhesively bond a reinforcemant patch over the cracked area with sufficient overlap to the sound bits of the tubes.

The patch could be metal manipulated to the countours of the frame, or, and this is what I know, could be cured in place carbon fibre with Epoxy resin. It would be visible, but a decent patch would actually reinforce the cracked area, which it needs. And the cured in place carbon can be sanded and finished nice too. While you're at it, do a similar patch on the other side before it cracks, and presto you have symmetry too.

The carbon fibre patch is easy to do, I've done it loads of times with cracked windsurfboards, but to make it look nice you need one of 2 things: skill or time.

Note this relies on the technicalities of adhesively bonding Aluminium as opposed to welding aluminium. Without going too technical, the difference is there's ways of achiving a good bond with common tools.