I had it in my head you had the white with multicoloured decals singlespeed…

I did, originally. That one bent in a big sprocket/big ring/too small chain incident, and they warrantied it because they thought that should not kill a frame. The replacement is red and much more beautiful.

Interesting photo – the huge dropout makes the back end less a triangle and more of a parallelogram. So the chainstay is also getting less assistance from the seatstay. Fatigue testing things is the day job, and failures are often due to many small design or manufacturing details adding together.

Hmm.. I see what you mean, but the rear plate is a fairly sturdy casting. But yeah. I can see that the joint with the seatstay and dropout might flex allowing the chainstays to flex more.

On the other hand, lots of their bikes must have the same arrangement cos it’s not the only one with ‘alternator’ dropouts.

Yeah I’m not saying x design is terrible or y design doesn’t work. Just that a combination of minor things can lead to longer term issues.

You like how the bike rides, get it fixed with a bit of thought and it will go on a good time longer.

Other more mtb focused builders might be more amenable.

Meant to ask if you’ve any recs on that front?