After many years service including a trip to the Alps, my Cotic Soul has succumbed to excessive gnar and cracked on the drive side chain stay. Luckily the forcefield of awesomeness that surrounded me kept the thing together until I got back to the car.

Has anyone had a Soul crack on them and had it repaired or is it time to bin it and look for something new ?

Speak to Cy. IME his customer service is excellent

Should be repairable – might look a bit industrial, but it’ll add character!

It’s chro-moly back there so may need a gusset adding when welding back together but I’d ask Cotic. Just out of curiosity, how many hours/years/miles of use, what do you weigh, and how gnnarr (big drops?)?

Mine did exactly this while I was out avoiding the royal wedding last week. Driveside chainstay snapped halfway thought, but held together as I limped back to the car.

I used it as am excuse to go shopping for sexy Ti, but also welded it back up last week (cos I can do it for free) and I’m now waiting to get it back from the (free) powdercoater this week. Then it’s getting all the bits off the Inbred swapped over to it as a second\winter\trailer bike. The weld looks good, so it should hold up fine.

If not, I’ve spent no extra money on it, so nothing lost. If it lasts, then I’ve saved about a ton in weight over the inbred frame and sexied the spare bike up a bit…

My frame was old enough that I didn’t bother pestering Cy about it – it’s done it’s duty well.

Its a deathtrap. Drop it off at my place and Ill dispose of it for you 😉

Mine cracked on the chainstay near the dropout. Being the observant rider I am I didn’t notice for quite a while and just wondered why everything felt a bit wobbly.

For thirty-five quid a bloke in Dronfield welded a sleeve over it. A bit of hammerite in a totally different shade of grey to the rest of the frame and all was fine for another year or so. Then I cracked it again – same dropout, other end – and binned it.

chiefgrooveguru – i think it’s 06, done lots of miles, no big drops but lots of rocky riding in a rather unaccomplished, clumsy 80-85kg rider stylee.

037 by Shinythings2, on Flickr

dancake, most generous.

If it’s cr you’ll be fine. I am currently riding a re-welded headtube/downtube junction HJ. So far, so good…

crikey, you’d want that job to hold out 😯

80 – 85 kg my arse 😉

It would be a shame to throw it out so repair and treat with care.

you’ve been riding with Si again haven’t you…

Try calling a good frame builder like Argos in Bristol – they’ll happily replace a pipe for you.

incidentally, if anyone else decides to bin a Cotic (or any other steel frame, frankly) after a crack, let me know, Or find out hom much it’d cost to either stick a new stay in, or sleeve the bugger..

bump

anyone actually had a repair successfully done ?

anyone actually had a repair successfully done

Not had to repair a Cotic but other Cromo frames, normally braze them. no issues. Why should there be

How will I know if it’s successful?

I will ride it, and it will be fine, at least for a while.

If it lasts another 6 years, then yes it was successful. If it lasts another 10 rides then cracks again, it was less so.

Ask me again in a year or so….

TM, Argos charge £80 for a replacement chainstay & bridge repair.

Argos Frame Repairs

I’m intending on sending my snapped chainstay Inbred there at some point. We could double up, put them in one box and split the courier costs?

Alternately, you could transfer all the components to that sliding-dropout Inbred that’s probably gathering dust in your outhouse 🙂

BTW, I snapped my 2008 Inbred a year ago so, therefore, have considerably more gnar than you 😉

slugwash – sounds like a plan

i need to hear that someone else has patched one up and continued to rag the ass off it for a couple of years before i’m convinced though.

there is a side issue that mrs tm has been primed that a new frame might be needed and it didn’t illicit a violent reaction so i might just go for something new anyhow.

it didn’t illicit a violent reaction

this undoubtedly means she’s been spending the kid’s pocket money on shoes and make-up
.
buy titanium

Trail monkey, if its an 18in from i’m make sure its doesn’t snap on you, by “looking after it” for you. a service i’ll do for free.

For the Soul riders who’ve snapped their offside chainstays, were they previously damaged by chainsuck or was it completely out of the blue?

FWIW I’ll be getting mine repaired if/when a chainstay goes, but I’ve had it since they first come out, so my total lack of gnar is evident.

My old one had to have a chainstay welded, its still going I think 4 years later and I believe its swapped hands at least 3 times on here since! It will be fine.

😯

Well a mate wrapped his Soul (one of the earliest ones) round a tree on its first outing – bent the crap out of one of the seat stays. It lasted a couple of years like that, then when it gave in, he had a new stay welded in (Argos IIRC) and it’s still going fine.

My Simple gave up the ghost too – to be fair, it started life as a Soul and then got hacked around with new dropouts fitted, then got ridden in the sopping wet, and only in the sopping wet for a few years, before cracking on one of the rewelded bits. Got it bodged up again, and it’s still fine 18 months on.

The joy of steel is that you can repair it with confidence.

anyone actually had a repair successfully done ?

See my post above the photo…

For the Soul riders who’ve snapped their offside chainstays, were they previously damaged by chainsuck or was it completely out of the blue?

Mine was a Mk1 that snapped near the air hole at the dropout end. That hole’s no longer there, so nothing to worry about. (And I think I was messing around in Wharncliffe at the time). That was successfully and cheaply repaired with a sleeve.

The second time it snapped on a heavily chainsuck-damaged section of the stay. This was during an XC race when I tried to overtake someone mincing down a descent by taking a faster line off a drop. As I was totally kippered at that point in the race, I landed like a sack of spuds, to the accompaniment of a load crack.

TM

Just a thought PeterProddy had his chainstay on his 853 inbred replaced by Argos and still gave it a good ragging.

I have had 2 bikes made by Aros and there workmanship is superb