Frame failure experiences

[chickendrumsticks]

Just riding along


View attachment 954301View attachment 954302View attachment 954303I'll take

Woman desperately reaches for wheel:
"I'll take that, you won't be needing it now."

 

[LeeDevelopment]

Hmmmm......folded two Foes LTS 16 frames, snapped a Spooky Project X (the swing arm tube that supported the shock mount area), cracked chainstays on early Intense M1.

Since the middle-to-late 90's I don't think I've had any issues with anything else.

 

[danson67]

This 2002 Cannondale CAAD5 came across my bench recently.
Fantastically light (1400g for a 58cm road frame), but no wonder it cracked:



Really poor dropout design. Stamped from 1/4" plate, sharp edges with a major x-section change and hardly any vertical thickness. That short section, only 60mm², has to take all the stress and strain when welded to those stiff, fat, round chainstays.

If only they'd stuck with the simpler dropout from the CAAD3 series and not been tempted to save around 3g of aluminium



For the repair, I made up a plug for the cutout, U-cut the crack, Welded up, filed to surface, and back on the road.



All the best,

 

[bikeworkshop]

This 2002 Cannondale CAAD5 came across my bench recently.
Fantastically light (1400g for a 58cm road frame), but no wonder it cracked:

View attachment 961061

Really poor dropout design. Stamped from 1/4" plate, sharp edges with a major x-section change and hardly any vertical thickness. That short section, only 60mm², has to take all the stress and strain when welded to those stiff, fat, round chainstays.

If only they'd stuck with the simpler dropout from the CAAD3 series and not been tempted to save around 3g of aluminium

View attachment 961075

For the repair, I made up a plug for the cutout, U-cut the crack, Welded up, filed to surface, and back on the road.

View attachment 961063View attachment 961062View attachment 961064View attachment 961065

All the best,

Above, the craftsman @danson67
Below, the farmer @bikeworkshop

Today i had a functional 95 steel trek 730, of reasonable emotional value come in,
hardened dropout broken, same as the dale.
I brazed the crack, then wrapped a bit of stay round the tube, heated and squashed it to shape, and brazed it up.

Not expecting prizes for beauty, but I'm not expecting it to break again in that spot.
Cheap and nasty, true.
But also economical and functional