Have you ever REALLY broken a frame?

Slightly surprised I appear to be the first person to mention a DMR Switchback here.

I’ve done a few; below is my best achievement to date.

Twung my BFe into a tree hard enough to bend the coil Lyriks and deform the frame enough to ding the headset cups inside the HT and ovalise the BB shell so the BB cups were a real bugger to remove.

Snapped headtube off an 853 inbred and did a collarbone in the process

Broken a PP Shan (cracked along the head tube weld) and a plastic Yeti on the downtube

Im surprised no ones mentioned snapping the HT off an Azonic Evo yet

I’ve never broken one but one of my workmates snapped the rear triangle of a Trek remedy on one of the jumps at Gawton last year.

Luckily it held together afterwards and he wondered why his rear tyre was rubbing the frame 😆

Snapped a Commencal so hardly unique. As it was a chain stay I had a long walk home!

What happened to the wheels?! Did they burn up on re-entry or something?

We took the wheels off, two riders took a wheel each so another could give him a backie with the remains of the frame wrapped around him down the road from Avoriaz to Morzine. It was all very sketchy.

Snapped a Raleigh Airlite road bike, separating the carbon chainstays from the alloy BB shell where they were bonded in, bunny hopped a manhole on a descent and it went bang, thankfully they stayed put otherwise it would’ve been hospital times.

Snapped the seat-tube where it projected above the top tube on a KTM Aera, haven’t got a bloody clue how and thankfully noticed before the next ride.

I broke, no.. actually it broke leaving me stranded near Farnborough back in 06’.. having left home for a 90k hack north through the Downs up to the airfield then back, all through Hampshire’s lanes and tiny hamlets.. what was a route I know well.. it decided to modify itself into rear wheel steering and the rear chainstay broke on the non-drive side.. I had a walk into town (about 2miles) found a cab company willing to drive me all the way home to the coast with only £20 in my pocket.. to this day I always carry £50 just in case..
Awful bike BTW, got a refund sharpish and bought my Orca and my love affair with Orange Orbea’s started.

Never broken a frame. But then I’m a light mincer.

I did however snap the forks and bars of my giant Propel when it went into the side of a car at 20 mph. The bike came off better than I did and is now back running with a new fork.

Kona Scandium frame, developed a crease on the downtube, wouldn’t inspect, claimed it was crash damage (it wasn’t) and nothing to do with the coke can thickness of the tubing

Kona warranty was worthless to me

sainted bike shop personality who sold it just as bad

Yep;

Trek 970 – head tube completely removed, and fork crown snapped in 2

Cove Stiffee – Top tube snap at seat tube

Cove G Spot – Top tube at seat tube as well as below the top pivot. And rocker arm snapped.

RM ETSX – snapped down tube, seat tube, top tube – all “just riding along” honestly was, was a shitter that, not even my bike!

Cove Hustler – Snapped top tube, and above and below the pivot on the seat tube – just riding along, though in fairness i think the previous half hour riding had something to do with it.

Banshee Spitfire – was only a crak at the shock mount, so probably would have been fine with the agricultural weld i had done, but decided on crash replacement.

I have:
Cracked 3 frames – Steel, Aluminium and Carbon.

I rode an old steel condor roadbike into the back of a lorry. That killed it good and proper!

I’m old enough to have bent non-replaceable steel mech hangers, but that’s it. 🙂

I cracked 2 frames at the welds, didn’t fancy riding them until they really went.

June 2004, three of us went to Wales for a week.

Both of my mates’ Specialized Enduros broke. One cracked at the monocoque/seat tube junction, the other broke at the rear brake mount weld to the seatstay.

The prompt response from Specialized was to immediately replace one entire frame and to replace the seatstay on the other, complete with new chainstay bearings.

A week later, I went into my local Spesh dealer and bought myself an Enduro, the frame now hangs from my study wall and is one of very few 2002-04 Enduros left intact.

Cracked an Orange Sub Zero and an Intense Tazer HT.

The latter is hanging on a wall in the house.

snapped a gt tequesta through the dropout so the seatstay chainstay were no longer joined.

It was about 10 years old and had been a trials bike, a mountainbike, a commuter and done several long rides at that point. it seemed a fair retirement.

I ripped both dropouts off a Orange P7 doing a small drop, about 12″. One side completely off, the drive side still attached to the bent seat stay. Orange said it was not being used for its intended purpose, i.e. Mountain biking, on a 3 month old frame.

Never broke any of my MTB frames in 20 years, still riding one of my oldest bikes in the hope of making a claim on the lifetime warranty.

Closest I’ve come was bending the swingarm on our brand new FS tandem going down a kerb on its first ride, they must have forgotten to heat treat it after welding.

Broke a dynatech diablo frame – crashed into the track crossing on the Malvern’s DS course in ’95. Broke the forks in a way that they hit the down tube & creased it. THREE YEARS LATER and the thing finally gave out while just riding along.

Cove Hustler – Snapped top tube, and above and below the pivot on the seat tube – just riding along, though in fairness i think the previous half hour riding had something to do with it.

My mate broke two of those just in front of the the top tube intersection with the seat tube. The last one is now largely made of weld in that area.

Ellsworth Joker – Do not overshoot the landing is the lesson here. Happily I wasn’t damaged.

quite a number of years back, i broke a frame while riding at the Moab Fat tyre festival. I had a very early GT RTS-1 bike, that properly exploded.

I over-jumped a drop off and flat landed heavily. The head-tube gave way and tore away from the frame. As my weight (and increasingly outstretched arms) went fast forward, my head smashed down on the top tube, as my weight slammed down onto the saddle. Both tubes were separated from the lower part of the frame. This left the now individual tubes only connected by some cables. My broken nose and concussion didn’t stop my ‘friends’ laughing so hard they could not stand up.

Upon return to UK, i mailed the frame back to Tim FLooks (at the time GT distributor) in a long cardboad tube with a small triangle attached to the end. He very kindly refunded my cash, while refusing to give me another frame. Wish i’d take a photograph now.

Hit a tree a few years back and folded the top and down tube on a Giant Reign. Looked a bit like Rob’s BFe above.

MoHo CXS. Frame too small for me (as you can see). ARSE!

Don’t know if this link will work. Quite painful but also extremely lucky not to break anything although still get a stiff neck years later.

After initially using two long sticks and some cable ties to “fix” it and push it, I disconnected the cables and caliper and split it fully in two so I could push it out of the forest. Got to the entrance, 2 couples ride past and stop, one of the women said it was her first time riding in there and was a bit worried it was going to be too tricky…..totally safe I replied whilst holding the split bike and being covered in blood

https://photos.app.goo.gl/y9W55QSXBU8Du94A3

Not my bike (but it is my photo…)

This guy walked past during the Raid Gaspesie adventure race, looking pretty dejected.

Bang on trend slack geometry there.

Snapped three Cannondales whilst working for an outfit in Gran Canaria…. A Scalpel in exactly the same fashion as the one above and two Rise 140, again both at the chainstay.

Managed to fold my Scott Scale almost in half and pringled the front wheel in some low speed comedy slow down a muddy Essex clay hill. Scott we not interested, but the insurance paid out no probs.

And my old DB Alpine a few years back and found a small hairline on the downtubev gusset. Dialled Bikes sent me a new frame at a silly cheap price and congratulated me on my achievement. That bike had been ridden more than 20 times across the Alps and had seen more action than any bike I own is ever likely to see…. Got it rewelded for 20€ and it’s now my pub bike/loaner-out-er…

Oh God,! I had a Scalpel too that broke at the chainstay.. crikey I’d forgotten all about that bike.. back in 05 IIRC … I really like Scalpels to this day and if I was going all XClike it’d be my first choice..

God, totally forgot about that 😳

When I was working as a courier in Sydney #courierbrag I heard a loud bang when riding my Marin Rocky Ridge and it went all spongy. About 5 of us couldn’t see what was wrong with it so I rode it home down a steep hill, it was bouncing a bit. Got back and found it had snapped the downtube by the headtube and was held together by the gear and brake cables which ran down the underside. Observant, eh?

Also destroyed my brother’s Orange P7 by riding it flat out into a fence that I didn’t see and breaking the headtube (amongst a lot of other things. Plus I hadn’t asked if I could borrow it…)

Cycled into the back of an Aleggro and snapped my downtube. Rigid bike had an early form of suspension not dissimilar to a Slingshot!

All the other failures were just creaking cracks of doom – Klein, Cannondale, Verlicchi, Specialized M2 etc. They were also all lightweight aluminium and I suppose they only last so long.

Snapped an ST4 chainstay right through. Same bike then ate two rocker links in quick succession. All related to poor design and weakness, not my hardcore riding skillz.

Scalp-Had a known bonding issue at the chainstay
Hustler-Saw half a dozed fail at the st/tt junction (regardless of seatpost insertion).Stopped being a Cove dealer over it.
Commencal Meta 5/6-We had a 70-80% failure rate the one year.I had 8 boxes of customer bits sat awaiting fror new frames a one point.Some people went through 3 frames.
ST4-It was supposed to be an xc bike….a very heavy xc bike.They beefed up the chainstays,which broke the linkage.
Zesty Carbon-One of the shop lads broke 3 chainstays in a total of 6 hours riding.
I’d say I’ve seen more than half a dozen for every year I worked in an Lbs.
Grapil-Everyone knows about them.
I’d say I’ve seen more than half a dozen for every year I worked in an Lbs.A lot were manufacturing/design defects.Just as many were people riding like mongs.

Not snapped, but mangled an ali norco sight rear triangle badly,(front end was borked too)unfolded a bit so it hangs better on garage wall,A reminder of my lack of skill

Hit a car head on at about 20mph in Italy. Somehow I came out of it relatively uninjured (broken finger and concussion), and oddly the only damage the bike took was this ^.
The real challenge* was explaining to the very angry Italian man, who didn’t speak any english, that the best thing to do would be for him to drive me back to the campsite, where my girlfriend would be able to translate and we could exchange details. I then suffered another near death experience as he hammered along, on the phone with one hand, programming the satnav with the other, steering with his knees!