Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 144 total)
  • OK – so what frames have failed on you then?
  • shortcut
    Full Member

    Fundamentally, having seen Trailquestgraham’s post about his broken Lynskey and seen various others on here, and in the spirit of sharing the heartache (having a Lynskey myself) I want to know who else has had what frames fail on them.

    So bring out your dead.

    For me:
    1998 GT Zaskar – Frame replaced under warranty
    2000 ish Airborne Lucky Strike – I bought it second hand.
    Various Cove Paint Failures (too many to mention) – 3 frames replaced and 1 respray under warranty.

    16stonepig
    Free Member

    Paint failures? Was it load-bearing?

    trail_rat
    Free Member

    iron horse flag staff
    speciaized hardrock
    Marin B17
    Dmr Trailstar
    Mr Big ST10

    mattbee
    Full Member

    Only one that has failed rather than been killed by accident damage. That was an Airborne Valyrie road bike,crack at seatstay/seattube junction. Was relplaced under warranty.

    davidtaylforth
    Free Member

    Marin Nail Trail
    CRC Alloy frame
    numerous DMR Trailstars

    Although the DMR’s were good fun to ride.

    PeterPoddy
    Free Member

    1992 Kona Cindercone (Downtube buckled, don’t know why)
    1996 Kona Hei Hei – Seat tube cracked
    On One Inbred 853 – Chainstay gave out to chainsuck, reapired and still in use.

    And I’ve snapped a Sanderson as well, and a couple of sets of forks

    clubber
    Free Member

    1. Peugeot Road bike – both dropouts snapped (pretty sure the second when the first one broke
    2. 1995 Kona Kilauea – snapped RH dropout (since repaired and still in use)
    3. GT Edge road frame – seat tube snapped just above the BB weld
    4. Dolan Road frame – RH dropout snapped
    5. Scott G-Zero – cracked at the seat ‘tube’
    6. Pace RC303 – cracked at the top of the seat tube/top tube gusset weld (Pace replaced under warranty)
    7. Rocky Mountain Element – broke at the dropout
    8. Giant NRS – Grrr… pretty sure it was already cracked when I bought it second hand off here…

    Hmmm I’ve broken a few dropouts, haven’t I…

    5lab
    Full Member

    2002 transition preston (after 5 years)
    2007 transition preston fr (after 5 rides)
    2007 transition preston fr (after 2 rides)

    The first one i was fine with, the latter 2 got warranteed really quickly and the 4th frame was a different design.

    PeterPoddy
    Free Member

    (having a Lynskey myself)

    Are you worried mate?

    LS
    Free Member

    Raleigh 501 road frame – head tube cracked
    Sirius 653 cross frame – down tube snapped (during a race)
    Cannondale 2.8 road frame – seatstay snapped
    Kinesis ally road frame – b/b shell came away from frame (during a race)
    Raleigh Ti road frame – chainstay cracked
    Kinesis Evo ally/carbon cross frame – chainstay cracked
    Ambrosio carbon road frame – seat tube cracked
    Van Tuyl Ti cross frame – chainstay cracked

    I think that’s it 😳

    cynic-al
    Free Member

    Cracked a Prometheus crashing (fixed it too!); also did this:


    brokenbike2 by alan cole, on Flickr

    4ags4
    Free Member

    Pace RC300 head tube cracked

    z1ppy
    Full Member

    2000 Marin Mount Vision (4 years old) – BB fell off
    2004 Marin Mount Vision (a year or two old) – cracked just above the BB on the underside of the down tube.

    ATB replaced it asap
    (kinda annoyed I didn’t manage to break it again & get a ‘new’ shape MV 😉 )

    enfht
    Free Member

    Raleigh Tuff Burner around 1986, seat tube cracked at the bottom bracket.

    ilovemygears
    Free Member

    Trek Fuel ex 9 broke at brake mount after 4 weeks..
    Scott Spark, only seat stays on frame are original..lol 3 years old
    Older trek ex9 fuel frame, ovalized head tube…but my fault for running 8 inch disks on it.

    Pawsy_Bear
    Free Member

    Rocky Mountain ETSX70 after many years but it was just poor design

    LoCo
    Free Member

    Specialized epic
    Specialized Big hit

    plus have seen alot of stuff that really shouldn’t have broken but have 😉

    mt
    Free Member

    Alpinestars Al Mega (raised chain stay),8 months almost every weld cracked.
    Specialized Sirrus Pro, chain stay cracked after years of use.
    Tomac 98 Special, top tube/head tube weld cracks.

    messiah
    Free Member

    1993 Rocky Mountain Blizzard – bottom bracket stretched – warranty
    1993 Rocky Mountain Blizzard – Rear brake boss bent from factory – warranty
    1995 Rocky Mountain Blizzard – seatstays cracked – warranty
    1995 Trek 9900 OCLV Team Issue – brake boss snapped off – warranty
    1995 Trek 9900 OCLV Team Issue – bottom bracket fell out – warranty
    1997 Kona Explosif – dropout cracked after 11 years – welded up as my singlespeed
    1999 Intense Uzzi SL. Seatmast snapped, 2 x chainstay cracked, 2 x seatstays cracked – I ran this for 6 years
    2004 Balfa Minuteman – seat-tube cracked
    2010 Whyte 19 steel – cracked dropout – warranty

    I tend to keep my bikes for a few years… I’ve only owned two frames that I’ve not broken. The Nicolai Nucleon I just sold and the Nicolai Helius AM which I’ve only had for a year. There is one other frame I didn’t break which is a Trek 8900 from 2002 but I wore it out – the threads in the bottom bracket seemed fine but bottom brackets always got loose in it even with PTFE tape or threadlock etc.

    I’m on the lookout for a new hardtail… certain Ti frames are off my list :o)

    johnners
    Free Member

    Cotic Soda. 3 smallish cracks on bottom of downtube propagated from creased dents (rock strikes).

    I large crack across seat tube/top tube junction which I didn’t notice, attributing the creaking noises to the cracks I knew about. I gave the frame to a mate to have a go at welding the downtube cracks and he spotted the big one straight away.

    D0NK
    Full Member

    ?? Emmelle californian ridden into a parked car, warranty replacement(!)
    94 kona lava dome, drive side drop out cracked/split was over 10years old by then tho
    97 GF montare, cracked top tube warranty replaced with…
    00 GF supercaliber, cracked seat tube in 09, probably still under warranty I found out just after I binned it 🙁
    ?? Kinesis xc>120 cracked chainstay

    squattingmouse
    Free Member

    Scott Tigua – chainstay snapped (reapired using some rods and to hell with what it did to heat treating) and top of seat tube snapped off

    Scoot G-Zero – Crack in shock mount on swing arm. Replaced swingarm.

    Both were quite old at time of death

    showerman
    Free Member

    tomac eli cracks on nearly every weld possible
    litespeed unicoe bottom bracket failure

    ibis mojo paint problems replaced even though over 3 years old
    really good service from ibis themselves as shop over here left me out in the cold pre 2pure

    stcolin
    Free Member

    Can’t believe it’s taken this long…..

    2009 Commencal Meta 5 frame – seat tube/top tube weld

    walleater
    Full Member

    The only one in recent years was a Cannondale Prophet MX which cracked and failed after around 15 minutes of owning it.

    ton
    Full Member

    orange sub zero
    snapped frame above the seat tube/crossbar joint.
    asked orange to weld me a gussett onto the frame to stop it happening again.
    they refused.
    then brought out the sub zero with the gussett where i wanted mine about 4 month later.

    craig1975
    Free Member

    Cove handjob

    Intense Tracer (twice)

    ScottChegg
    Free Member

    Ritchey P22 – fell to bits after 12 months. Light though
    Marin Pine Mountain Full sus. Pivot failure
    Early Yeti 575 – Carbon flex joint cracked
    Santa Cruz Heckler – Swingarm split at disc tab
    Specialized Enduro – seat tower cracked.
    Ti 465 – Yes
    Orange Vit-T – Shame that.

    Best warranty? Specialized. They couldn’t have been better. Worst? Santa Cruz. If you have a Blue frame, you don’t want a red swingarm.

    chakaping
    Free Member

    Specialized Big hit

    That’s good going!

    My old one felt indestructable.

    gazc
    Free Member

    ribble reynolds steel road bike – snapped top tube
    kona stab primo 2002 – cracked shock mount
    kona stab primo 2003 – bent the downtube in a crash
    crc alloy xc frame – crack seat tube/top tube weld

    jimw
    Free Member

    2006 Trek Top Fuel 110- cracked at alloy BB/carbon seat tube junction after 18 months- warranty frame replacement was:
    2008 Trek Fuel 9.8- cracked at carbon suspension mount/down tube junction after 38 miles – warranty frame replacement was:
    2009 Trek Top Fuel 9.9SSL – cracked at rocker pivot on seat tube after 4 months- warranty replacement was:
    2009 Trek EX9 whole bike for frame replacement ( didn’t want the replacement carbon frame they offered, very good of them to give credit towards whole new bike)- all the bits left over are now on my hardtail

    All I can say is I was unlucky with carbon frames and that Trek UK were brilliant in sorting it all out (thanks Colin) and I am still very happy with the EX9 two years on

    voodoo_chile
    Full Member

    1983 raleigh burner seat stay crack
    1983 mongoose californian chainstay snapped
    1984 haro master headtube crack
    1989 diamond back topanga u brake mount weld come away
    1993 alpinestars al mega dx seat stay crack
    1999 GT sts d/h crack bottom bracket shell (4 days old )!!!

    must be more ! cant believe not snapped a bike in 12 years !

    lunge
    Full Member

    Trek 930, cracked at the chainstay/bottom bracket weld, replaced under warrenty
    Trek 920, same as above, also replaced under warrenty
    Old Peugeout race, cracked at the top of the seatstay, binned as it was old and dead and racers are designed to jump…

    docrobster
    Free Member

    I’ve never broken a MTB frame. Must try harder.
    Late 80s Raleigh 501 steel road bike, snapped at downtube/head tube junction in approx 1993. Replaced under Warranty. Bought first mountain bike 1994.
    Numerous steel road frames broken doing jumps n stuff when I was in my early teens- replaced by skip scavenging.

    flyingfox
    Free Member

    What I’ve done (surprised because I don’t break bikes):

    Gary Fisher Big Sur (new frame after crack left BB hanging off almost!)
    On One Ti 456 (still no answer after emailing and calling all day so don’t know yet)

    What I’ve maybe contributed to (bikes I’ve ridden as little as once in some cases):

    Cube Fritzz (chainstay broken right through)
    Yeti ASR-5 (chainstay broken after a few rides by the customer)

    whyter
    Full Member

    1997 Zaskar – crack slowly spreading round seat tube (still riding tho!)
    2003 Blur – clean through seat tube. One of the dodgy weld batch. 2006 Blur XC as replacement – had to pay for swingarm tho 🙁 – still, kudos to Jungle for sorting me out as it was just out of warranty.

    Must be something about my riding style that busts seat tubes?!?!

    jambon
    Free Member

    2 x Kona Muni-Mula Ally Frames, Seat tube to Top Tube Junction
    1 x Kona explisif Steel Frame, Seat tube to Top Tube Junction
    1 x Cannondale Super V Rear Triangle

    Anyone keeping tabs on this – looking like Kona’s are pretty crap scanning this list?

    Northwind
    Full Member

    Broke my Hemlock at the chainstays… Known issue of course so I wasn’t that surprised, especially considering the use the bike gets put to… what did surprise me was that Cotic couriered me a free set of the upgraded chainstays, even though I told them I’m the second owner so no warranty. Had it built back up 3 days after it broke. Never has a broken frame made a man so happy :mrgreen:

    jonnyrobertson
    Full Member

    Whyte PRST-1 in 2003. The disc bake calipers were mounted onto cheap cast plates which attached to the frame and forks. Riding down a single track road braked to move out of he road of a wee 7.5 ton tipper. Bridging plate on front forks failed jamming caliper into the wheel, snapping it clean off just above the caliper and folding then snapping away to the right closer to the headtube on the right hand fork leg. Proper face plant! Nice bloke in the tipper stuck the bike on the back and took me home. ATB were gonna replace the forks but Chris at J.E James in Sheffield where i bought the bike said to them “you wanna see the state of his face, I think you might want to make some kind of goodwill gesture”. Few weeks later they’d put all the parts off the PRST-1 onto a PRST-4 which is still going strong. Luckily that’s all that’s screwed up on me…

    danlurinsky
    Free Member

    Ragley Ti – cracked headtube.

    Amazing service, replaced frame before Id even sent back faulty one!

Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 144 total)

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