My Turner Flux has been creaking. A lot. Everything has been greased and checked – in the process of doing so I found this line between the welds on the lower shock mount. It's a 2005 HL model, so pretty old. What does the collective think – is this a crack? Should I be worried?

Cheers

TB

p.s I have contacted Turner, but they haven't got back to me yet, I'm just impatient…

If it goes back to Turner US you'll need to be patient 😉

I emailed Turner a week last Sunday & still waiting for a reply!

Get it dye penned, an engineering works will be able to do it.

Turner are usually amazing at warranty and advice…

Having worked in a shop in the mid-90s that sold Cannondales, I've only seen about 4,397 cracked frames.
Most are full depth (right through the entire thickness of material) and start at the weld.
This just looks like a surface mark.
But I'll temper that by saying it's hard to tell from a picture.

I would say fairly confidently that the line between the welds is not a crack. Looks to me more like a line marked or scribed onto the tubes prior to the frame being welded. It would be a scribe line to set the height for the shock mount position in the jig for fabrication. It is very unlikely that a crack would form on only that piece of tube and not run into the welds on either side. The only thing that I would double check is that the line doesn't co respond with exactly where the end of your seat post is inside the frame. Is it sufficiently long?

Who did you email at Turner? My experience with them has been very good. They were very helpfull when I had a cracked chain stay on 2005 5 spot, sent me a replacment FOC (no postage cost)even though it was 4 years old.

Doubt that's a crack tho it looks like an imperfection.

Even if it was a crack it wouldn't be creaking. No forces to make it do so.

Someone previously sugested getting it dye penned. I expect they refer to this product or similar.

http://www.indanc.com/flawfinder_layout_ink.php

If you can find an engineering firm that use that product it is very good for finding or helping to confirm if marks are surface scratches or cracks.

run your fingernail over it see how deep it is?

+1 for scribe mark, it does seem to line up exactly with top of shock mount.

http://www.indanc.com/flawfinder_layout_ink.php

That's the stuff.
Bloody hell, it's dear stuff to buy, free from our stores.

Doesn't look like a crack to me. You can see light reflecting from the middle of it – solid material.

try your lbs for an 'in the flesh' opinion*

*not available at our online stores

can see the scribe mark in the shock mount you are talking about, but is the crack not the bit at the top of the outside edge of righthand weld? that is what I was immediately drawn to, and from here I'd say it looks like the weld is failing.

this was my 2006 cracked flux

turners amazing service included a five month wait for a new front triangle – so not really amazing if they don't have something spare in stock… but they will help you out

got a reply from Greg at Turner and he reckons it's a forming scar so should be fine but to keep an eye on it. If it gets worse they can fix the frame (but it may take a while!) Here's hoping it doesn't get any worse, I'm riding the Kielder in September on this bike!

Phew, paranoia recedes.

It doesn't look like a crack, but, as chunky paul has shown, thats a pretty common failure point for fluxes and 5spots of that time.