[Closed] Cracked road frame, safe to ride?

I'd rub the paint off (what have you got to lose?) and see if the tube's cracked (what's it made from, btw).

if there's a 2" long crack in the frame I'd either get it repaired (easy if carbon) or bin it. I wouldn't ride it like that.

[edit] I assume if there's a dent it's an aluminium frame?

Thanks for the feedback, I'm sure you're right. It's alu - to the tip it goes

To me, without seeing it, that *sounds* like a rolled and seamed tube that's split along the seam, rather than a crack as such. I'm not sure how big your dent is, but have you contacted the manufacturer to see if they would expect that much seam separation for a dent of that size?

a rolled and seamed alu nice road frame ?

Could just be that the paint has cracked.

It's still got a dent, but you might consider that less terminal than a crack.

Photos?

Out of interest, why would you repair a cracked carbon frame but not a cracked ally frame?

because if you weld aluminium it can't be heat treated to restore strength.

Carbon can be repaired to be as strong as it was originally:

e.g.

[img] [/img]

wwaswas - Member

because if you weld aluminium it can't be heat treated to restore strength.

Carbon can be repaired to be as strong as it was originally:

I didn't know that, thank you. 🙂

a rolled and seamed alu nice road frame ?

Well, that was my thought, too, hence emphasising the "sounds" bit. It's just that "parallel with the tube" kind of implies that it might be straight, and propagating a split seam generally doesn't take much, so a decent dent might do it.

Dunno. Just a thought. Useless without pics etc.

What size frame and what tip do you use? 😉

1 is it a crack in the metal?
2 if it is then where on the TT is it? May not be under much stress
3 its unlikely to collapse on you
4 drilling into the ends might stop it propagating.

I'd have it but Wiliers are overpriced crap 8p

Not all aluminium needs to be heat treated after welding, that's why 6061 was often referred to as 6061-T6 as the T6 was the stage of heat treatment. 7000 series alloys aren't heat treated after welding.

Very unlikely to be a rolled and seamed aluminium tube.

However it is very likely to be an extruded aluminium tube (shoved through a die like toothpaste coming out of a tube), so flaws running along the length would be perfectly possible. Tubes are extruded around a central mandrel that is held in place by webs - so the flow has to divide and then rejoin around those webs - maybe another source of longitudinal flaws?

Is it hydroformed? That could also have done interesting things to a tube blank that began life with a flaw (prior to hydroforming).

I'll bet it's the paint that's cracked

Agree that the crack is most likely to be in the paint only - provided the dent hasn't created a sharp crease / stress-raiser then it's simply a case of carry on riding and keep an eye on it - use a permanent marker to mark the ends of the crack/crease so you can see if it changes over time. Any repair attempt would be ineffective / cost prohibitive.

Post some pics but I would almost certainly say it's going to be a paint crack rather than metal crack.

I've ridden plenty of dented aluminium frames and they've all survived for ages afterwards.

Yeh it's pure conjecture without pictures.. But still it's worth sanding it down to metal to see if it's paint or an actual crack.. If it's not cracked you can always refinish it, even if it's just a carefully chosen sticker or some vinyl wrap.

If you rub it down and discover its just the paint, then before repainting you could fill it with plastic padding that they use on cars. Good as new.