2 weeks after getting my 09 Heckler frame powder coated, and 3 rides in and I notice this crack on the swingarm:

Flexing the rear and it opens up slightly.
So its a new rear or welding. Whats the STW opinion on welding them? Is it a 6000 grade ali on Heckler? I’ve heard you cant repair weld 7000.

Either way, another powdercoat 🙄

Never bust a frame before.

Could the powdercoating process be the cause?

It crossed my mind, but have no idea. It is heated in oven, but it looks like fatigue thats broken the weld.

Santa cruz have a recommended temperature for the frame.
I remember having to state this to the powder coater I used as the recommended temp was lower than he was going to use.
Was quite easy to find on google 😀

oh poo. I didnt want to read that

What year did the pinch bolt rear stay get changed?

2010

Jungle (SC uk) reckon its more likely general stress and not the respray that caused the break – I did tell them it had been powdercoated 3 rides ago. After I questioned it due to what I have seen on here (the only place I can find with any info on powdercoatnig probs). They are now questioning SC US.

I’m getting the rest of the frame xray’d for fatigue/stress by people in aerospace industry and either welded repair or new swingarm. It’ll put my mind at ease before going to Chatel with my max recommended fork length up front (160mm) 😯

My son’s Heckler has a crack in exactly the same place and that’s never been powder coated.

My ’08 went in the same place. It was a more or less acknowledged fault and they changed the swingarm in ’10. I got a replace swingarm FOC from SC via Jungle.

This is sort of good news. It gives me confidence that the rest of the front triangle will be ok, and the powdercoating of repaired or replacement rear wont be so much of a problem. Swingarm is off the bike now and going back to powder finishers tomorrow or day after for them to inspect.

I’d get it straight off to Jungle. They’re really really good in my opinion. I think the failure is down the the stresses put onto the arm due to the pinch design. The newer arm does away with it and uses a collet(?) bolt instead.

Well, I have my email back from SC US:

“We would bake our bikes at 200c for 20 minutes. The temps did not cause the crack.”

So, the previous posts about SC frames and powdercoating are a load of bull and should be ignored – these:
http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/powder-coating-my-heckler
there was another on here, but cant find it.

Both Jungle and SC US do not have issues with powdercoating.

I’ll be ordering a new updated swingarm then, and it is sods law that the old one broke 3 rides after getting it painted 🙁

There can be a lot of rubbish advice given on here sometimes

Are you the original owner? Otherwise they wont sell you the replacement swingarm.

It’s probably just a sticker anyway

yes, but lost my receipt….

Have you registered the bike with the form in the setup guide? You can do it online with the frame number I think. It mentions not needing the receipt.

Fair bit of difference between old and new:

Much thicker tubes around pivot and obviously no pinch bolt.
Getting powdercoat next week.

Where is the ‘Aluminium frames are crap’ post, ‘cos if it’d been titanium…