Cuzy said...I reckon he's bashfully offering to investigate the crack (electron microscopy or whatever air accident investigators use these days to help figure out why aircraft land in ways not authorised under the standard operating procedures) if someone will send him a physical example. Has anyone near Portsmouth UK got a cracked frame they don't want, and are prepared to cut off that part of the frame & send it to him? How much metal either side of the crack do you need Cuzy? What else would you need with it?

(I could cut a chunk out of one of my spare frames, but I'm at the other end of the world and it costs gold to get stuff to the UK).

And he might be able to confirm the steel spec and suggest a couple of options for best repair welding (or perhaps Sulai19 might be able to offer suggestions on repair welding the crack if Cuzy can determine the failure mode and specs).

Sounds like I'm volunteering people for jobs, but hey its only a suggestion!

 

Hi gearloose,

Thanks for the PM's.

I think the other person you PM'd may be the person to have a look at this as I can only get at the specialist equipment when I am offshore at work.

It would not be easy for me to do this.

If you cleaned the area back to bare metal,took some close up digital photos and posted the pictures on this thread that might show up something useful prehaps.

If anyone who has a cracked frame is following this thread my advice would be to see a specialist frame repairer.

I live in the centre of the UK and we have a few people around here who do repair and build steel frames for a living.

I have seen it being done before and it is very skilled specialised work that requires a lot of expensive equipment but you do end up with a frame that is often better than factory spec.

I would not attempt it myself.

Obviously given the age/value of the bikes now it would be difficult to justify the expense to get this type of work done.

Best regards,

Pat.

 

Lets see if someone geographically closer to Cuzy has an old cracked frame they are prepared to donate to science by cutting the cracked part out of (including surrounding material) & sending it to him.

If someone like Cuzy is prepared to take a closer look and publish more information on the material, that might help make repairs (even those by the professionals) more reliable, and if someone on the forum has technical expertise in designing weld repairs, we'd all benefit.

Plus cutting it open might provide some interesting info on why it failed there, or perhaps give some clues as to why some frames fail and why others don't, or help with a better repair.

You don't know until you look!

 

Just checked my bike, no cracks. And when I bought it, the guy I bought it from said it was stunted a lot, and it was put down twice, and frames still good, no bends or cracks anywhere.

 

I had the same crack in my bike, but mine was totaled before I got it...

 

Welp I'm yet another person to dig up a bike with this crack.

I bought the bike for $400 off a friend who bought it, couldn't start it one day, and left it for three years. The kid who bought it certainly didn't wheelie it, nor do damn near anything with it. Infact after talking with him concerning his riding skills, he rode it as hard as the rest of us would ride a scooter, heh.


Prior owner definitely crasehd the bike, it's got cheap chineese fairings on it, and the stock ones that they gave me have a bunch of rash on them and were blatantly just spray painted over.


Anyways, I've got the bike torn down a decent amount, and sure enough I went to inspect for the crack today... and it's there for sure!

I'm definitely going to look into getting it ground down and welded. I'm wondering if there is any known bracing that will improve this?

 

wow, so many people are finding this crack, I need to check mine tomorrow.

 

Certainly interesting. That's a lot of cracked frames.

 

well you guys can add yet another cracked frame to your list mine has it too

 

First post here and it's to say that I found what looks like two cracks on the left side of mine. I'll be getting it welded up first chance I get