Hello,

I have purchased a 2008 Zesty frame and after stripping the paint have noticed this…

Is there anything i can do to repair this? The frame is aluminium.
The other cracks appearing nearer the seat tube are on quite a thick area so don’t think are of that much concern?

We are planning to make a steel collar to fit over the bb shell, making it slightly smaller than the outer shell diameter. Heat it up and slide it over, then let it cool down to clamp on the shell.

Would this work? Is there a better way to repair this?

If that frame is well designed and has had a normal life (ie no massive crashes) I’d be wondering if it’s on the verge of exceeding its fatigue life all over the frame.

The end of the crack needs to be drilled to stop the crack growing any more.
Welds need to be as clean as possible to avoid contamination, inclusions.

My 2009 Zesty frame had the same crack from new. Supposedly there was a manufacturing defect which resulted in the shell being too tight and splitting when the BB was pushed in. I wouldn’t be surprised if the crack has been there for a very long time already. I’d try and seek recourse from the seller before trying to bodge a repair personally. As it was an acknowledged manufacturing defect it might also be worth having a word with Hotlines/Lapierre but I wouldn’t hold your breath with it being long out of warranty and not with the original owner.

Thanks for the advice, unfortunately the previous owner wasn’t the original owner either, so doubt I will get anywhere with a warranty claim.
It may well have been there a while. When i picked it up i did look over the area but there was nothing to see with the paint over the top of it and it still had the bottom bracket in too. You could tell it wasn’t a fresh crack, there was already a fair bit of grime in there.
What did you do with your in the end timmys? Did you carry on riding with the crack or bin/repair it?

The rest of the frame looks in very good condition for its age, so if i could repair it and have it last another year or two atleast that would be good!

I’ve seen that welding video before, i just wasn’t sure whether it would weaken the other welds around that area? I don’t know if the frames get heat treated from new?

I wouldn’t ride it.

I’d be going back to the seller tbh.

What did you do with your in the end timmys? Did you carry on riding with the crack or bin/repair it?

Mine had the crack from new, or at least I noticed it after a couple of very gentle rides. The shop contacted Hotlines (the distributor) and Lapierre supplied a new front triangle. In the the couple of weeks it took for the new front triangle to arrive I carried on riding it (on the shops advice and on the basis that the frame was fubar’ed anyway so it didn’t really matter what happened) – the crack didn’t seem to get any worse.

We’ve had a couple of Zesty’s with that problem in the shop due to a manufacturing defect, not enough alloy in the bb shell area (zesty with a defect? 😉 ) they were original owner bikes/frames so we got them replaced which doesn’t help you much – sorry. I wouldn’t ride it in that state as the bb will fail catastrophically and dump your feet and ankles hard on the ground, prob after landing a jump or similar so if it was mine i’d bin it.

I’d check around the front shock mount gussets, seat tube cluster and examine the headset area as well.

EDIT : It’s 5/6 years old – in zesty terms that’s well past retirement age or very good going.

I’ve just text the seller, so will see what he says. The pinkbike ad does say its had a new bb, so would have thought he noticed before fitting that… 😕

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/cracked-bb-shell-repairable

I didn’t realise a 5/6 year old alloy frame would be past its best 🙁

Did they do pressfit BB on the Zesty as far back as 2008?

Yup, was quite surprised and a bit gutted they aren’t threaded!

The pinkbike ad does say its had a new bb, so would have thought he noticed before fitting that…

He (or the shop that fitted it) would have to be blind not to notice a crack in the shell when fitting a new BB, it sounds like he did notice it and decided to punt the frame on with the advert making a big deal of a new BB fitted so the new owner (you) wouldn’t have any need to look at the BB for a while, when you did look and find the crack he’d just say “it was fine when i sold it?”.

Best o’ luck, perhaps find out if the BB was fitted by a shop – if so then contact them and ask if they were aware the BB shell was cracked.

We’ve had a couple of Zesty’s with that problem in the shop due to a manufacturing defect, not enough alloy in the bb shell area

I was told it was the opposite – not enough alloy being removed due to a warn machine at the factory. The shell was therefore too tight and splitting when the BB was inserted.

As for the limited lifetime on Zesty’s, as an owner I’ve followed the cracking issues quite closely and it seems to me they either let-go very quickly, due to specific manufacturing issues, or if not survive fine. Still not sure I’d fancy a second hand one though!

Aye, surely no LBS would fit that. You can tell its not a new crack anyway.

Do I ahve any right legally? Does distance selling regs apply when you buy from an individual, or is it just ‘sold as seen’?