Can't believe it, 20 years riding and that's the first frame i've snapped. 🙁
Clean through the down tube just behind the gusset, luckily I heard it go as I was heading for a jump at the bottom of the Kilvey Hill DH track.
Its less than a year old as well 🙁
its a sad day in the spev household
Warrantied?
what frame?
Does the manufacturer offer a crash damage reduced cost replacement scheme?
Lucky you heard it go, could have been a bit nasty that one.
what sort of Cannondale was it ❓ 😉
fixed that for ya....what sort of [s]Cannondale[/s] [s]Lapierre[/s] [s]Commencal[/s] bike was it
What is it?
It was a MmmBop, hopefully warranty will cover it, i'll contact TheBikeChain in the morning and see what the procedure is. Dunno if it's put me off another one or not though
from Ragley's site
All Ragley Bike parts are warrantied for FIVE years for manufacturing defects (except the Ti frames that have a LIFETIME warranty for manufacturing defects). That is, should a product fail within five years because of something we did wrong, then we’ll replace it. The warranty does not cover normal wear and tear, improper assembly (such as crossed bottom bracket threads), poor maintenance or installation of parts and accessories not originally intended for, or compatible with the frame.This warranty applies to the original owner and is not transferrable. However, due to the very fluid nature of some customers bike purchases, and the resale of second hand, partially used parts (you know who I mean), we’re prepared to stand, if not behind, but slightly to one side, of second hand owners. Seriously – if you bought it off Ebay and it snaps, get in touch and we’ll see what we can do.
Of course, we all know that stuff happens and things get broken. And if we made frames and parts to cover all eventualities, and tested for “crashing into car-park roofs at high speed” you’d never lift our stuff. So, on cases where a genuine accident has caused a frame and/or rigid fork to be damaged beyond repair, we would like to make this offer in recognition of your support.
Depending on the age of the frame or component, we will replace the part with the same, or nearest equivalent, at a reduced cost of the retail price at the date of claim on the following scale:
* In years 1, replacement cost will be 50% of retail price.
* In year 2 and 3, replacement cost will be 75% of retail price.
* In years 3 and over, any discount will be at the discretion of Ragley Bikes.This offer is a gesture of goodwill.
The owner will be responsible for the cost of carriage in returning the frame/forks to us or our agents
Not sure why it failed really, its cracked around the down tube immediately behind the gusset, suggesting the gusset really wasn't doing its job 🙂
ah well i'll see what happens, at least it gives me an excuse to build up my Marin Attack Trail
ah. noticed your very last sentence. I've been through 2 marin quake frames and a quad tara frame. trance, 456 and spesh demo have all been fine...
by "through" i mean cracks found on each of them. my 09 wolf ridge is 1 month old and doing fine so far though 😀
geez a holler in the morning and we will sort out a replacement for you. The only thing is... there might not be an mmmbop available from the land of Hotlines. You will have some options.
Anyway, speak tomorrow.
Mark
Will do Mark, cheers
Really sorry to hear that Spev.
We'll be interested to see the broken frame. Mark - can you keep me updated please.
It was a MmmBop
3.5lb aluminium hardtail frames probably arent the best thing to be riding downhill tracks and doing jumps on.
Replace it with that Digger288 thats been featured in this months DIRT?
yeah rider error or wear and tear LOL...or had you fitted some incompatible parts?
What like Boxxer forks?!!
davidtaylforth - Member
It was a MmmBop
3.5lb aluminium hardtail frames probably arent the best thing to be riding downhill tracks and doing jumps on
the DH track is just its name, its not a proper DH track.
welding head tube gussets onto the down tube creates stress risers within the down tube. From an engineering point of view head tube gussets are not a very sound idea but give the impression that they make this junction stronger. Direct from the mouth of a US custom Ti frame building genius to me and from me to you 😉
welding head tube gussets onto the down tube creates stress risers within the down tube. From an engineering point of view head tube gussets are not a very sound idea but give the impression that they make this junction stronger. Direct from the mouth of a US custom Ti frame building genius to me and from me to you
Ha ha.
Don't you think that perhaps Brant and his fabricators might have considered the gusset, its placement and its effect?
He might have popped it there so it looks gnarly?
Direct from the mouth of a US custom Ti frame building genius to me and from me to you
Lynskey agree. In Ti. The mmmbop isn't Ti, so Ti rules don't apply.
Hmmmm.....
Interesting.
I'm not a huge fan of Ragley's, but I'm fairly surprised it broke. You can't really argue with their toughasnailsability!
Sometimes things break, the best thing is the bike shop and the bike brand have responded with an offer of sorting it out.
I'm not a huge fan of Ragley's, but I'm fairly surprised it broke.
First mmmbop I've heard broken. Really interested to see why.
Pagey's been riding one a fair bit. Until he got his Mega. Didn't break it, even though it was built "a bit odd" and does "some big gaps"
http://www.ragleybikes.com/2010/05/pageys-mmmbop/
Hope your ok Brant? Mended(ing)
Hope your ok Brant? Mended(ing)
I'm not broken. Did you hear I was broken?
We’ve been “knocking around” (as they say around here) with Nigel Page for a while now. He’s Team Manager at CRC Intense, and with CRC being the biggest Ragley dealer (after The Bicycle Shop in Skipton), we sort of ended up chatting a bit back. Since then, he’s ridden some trails with us, I’ve ridden some DH with him, which resulted in me trashing his Intense Socom and ending up in hospita
Bit ago now that - http://www.shedfire.com/2010/03/18/broked-and-collared/
Ouch, this will already been asked but that much damage to the fork?
Sure its not fatigue that contributed/caused the accident?
Sure its not fatigue that contributed/caused the accident?
I think sending it off a big drop, rather than prejumping was probably the cause.
The only fatigue was me being a bit tired.
Is it not generally accepted that crack = fatigue, bend = single large impact?
With cast stuff like that fork leg is most likely to be, a fracture may well be brittle, especially if its constrained, you can tell by looking at the fracture surfaces under a microscope.
Pffft...you must be an amateur, some folk can tell over the internet!
cynic-al - MemberPffft...you must be an amateur, some folk can tell over the internet!
😆
Bike was built with Pike 426's, midweight wheels and a mix of slx/xt and mid range "all mountain" kit i'm certainly not launching it off massive jumps but I don't avoid any that I think i can ride. I certainly would'nt describe myself as a DH loony.
Brant I can send you some photos of the frame if you want
Well good that your ok now? 🙂
Mind you, the hospital could have done something about that mad-scientist look that you have going on? 😆
I also broke an MmmBop frame. Bent it rather badly on the top tube and down tube. Didn't actually snap though.
Didn't bother checking warranty, as I don't think anyone warrants a frame to be crashed at speed into a large rock - and when I say large, it was taller than me!
After hitting the rock, the bike fell over and I fell on top of it. I think this is what caused the bends, rather than the initial impact. The ground was very rocky, with big spikey rocks!
I replaced with with another MmmBop frame (same colour and everything) which I then proceeded to dent quite badly in a not dissimiliar crash.
You can see why I've been nicknamed Conan by my riding mates!
Now got a Cotic BFe and, so far, I haven't even damaged the paint! (more a reflection of my newly cautious riding style than anything else).
spev - the pics have been sent over to H'lines and Brant too.
Email on it's way to you.
Typical STW reply from Toys19 there. How long have you been biking now? Do you think if Brant and his design crew did make that mistake they would have been the first? There is a large and very well respected custom frame builder doing that to this day namely Litespeed so i am sure there are others. No offence meant Brant of course. Can you please tell me how this would not apply to steel and aluminium frames as i am no metallurgist
Excellent service from The Bike Chain (and Brant/Hotlines) sorting out my replacement without any fuss,
cheers all
Can you please tell me how this would not apply to steel and aluminium frames as i am no metallurgist
Me neither.
This is talking to Mark Lynskey a bit - Ti doesn't like having too much heat put through it. Gussets just add heat and don't always make things better.
With an alloy frame, the frame is heat treated after welding which gives it all a chance to normalise the stresses and make things nice.
With steel, well - steel is steel and different again.
We're moving away from saddle gussetted frames on the 2011 models, thanks to the Fathead steel tubing we developed.
I've been thinking about this and I wonder there is a good reason why in Ti and steel gussets might do more harm than good. Stress is force over area, (ie it is independant of the material) so in an Aluminium alloy frame if you have a thick walled tube then adding a gusset might spread the stress through the cross sectional area. With Steel and Ti you can get away with much thinner wall sections to carry the same stress (globally) but locally a gusset might be worse as the wall section is so thin. But the point of a gusset is to reduce the stress concentrated at the joint, (in this case the head tube and down tube) so if applied correctly it makes sound engineering sense. Wherever there is a change in section there is a stress concentration, a bike frame is full of them...