Is this a crack? I think it is

That’s a crack, repairable though.

random place to crack. its the top of the seat tube right? what does it look like on the inside?

hows that repairable?

Giant XTC composite bought in September 2006, 5 year warranty on frame so 9 months out of warranty. Have yet to take it to LBS where I bought it but I dont hold out much hope of a replacement from Giant.

hows that repairable?

There are people who specialize in carbon repair.

6 Years, that’s a good life. Longer than Litespeed would honour their ‘Lifetime warranty’.

How much seat post is in the frame?

random place to crack. its the top of the seat tube right? what does it look like on the inside?

Yes top of seat tube. I wish I could tell you but the seat tube is bonded to the frame. And no I havnt been whacking it, twisting it etc to try and get it out, Just realised it was stuck recently and it was on my list to try and get it out, but as I dont really move my seat much I just left it.

Could the bonding “reaction” have caused the frame to crack?

Edit: was the seatpost greased before fitting?

It’s possible that the grease has caused the post to swell.

giant used to advise us that their xtc composite frames used to crack on the gell coat layers all the time without their being a structural issue. was a cosmetic rather than structural issue.
not saying thats the case here, but worth having a better look at the crack itself.

it is defo an odd place to just crack, assuming that the seatpost goes in to the frame past the top tube, stay, seattube junction. if it doesnt, then it has been fitted incorrectly. ie, not in far enough.

If its no longer a warranty job, then i’d get a price on a repair.
These Guys[/url] are repairing my Yeti swingarm, it’ll be ready tomorrow and they’re well priced.

if you get the clamp out the way does the crack go up past the bottom bit?

No if you move the clamp the “crack” stops where you can see in the 2nd pic.

how far in does the post go?

I am pretty sure I checked the minimum insertion when fitting it. I did trim a bit off the bottom though when I was weight weenying the bike, but I am quite small, so am pretty sure the seatpost goes below the rear stay/top tube junction.

So can I still ride it? 😯

I’d see what giant say before getting it repaired. Not too long out of warranty, Giant have a good rep with warranties so worth a polite enquiry at your dealer.

Will get it into the dealer at the weekend.

but just out of interest any of these carbon repair people Scotland based??

Of course you can still ride it. Why retire it now?

Have a friend who got extremely confused about seat post cutting and what minimum meant.. anyway, he cut his post far too short, first ride he raised it for climbing, then wondered whey he folded it off the back of his carbon frame.
Not a warranty for him. wouldn’t have made me physically sick.

Anyway, I digress, as it’s an old frame and you probably don’t need to adjust your seatpost height, simply epoxy that seat post in there and theres nothing to worry about 😉
Looks like a bit of corrosion/oxidation at the bottom of the frame pinch split though so the theory of it being swollen stuck are probably about right.

I’d see what giant say before getting it repaired. Not too long out of warranty, Giant have a good rep with warranties so worth a polite enquiry at your dealer

I would strongly disagree. I got fobbed off because I changed my seat post on a 2009 XTC to a Thomson. That said I had a good chat with Neil at Giant who told me “off record” about gel coats and paint cracking and that he didn’t believe my frame had failed. As a good will gesture he would take the bike back and xray the frame to make sure. That was back in March. 3 calls and 2 emails later still no response. So how do you rate good?

Looks like a gelcoat crack to me. But could be because of increased flex due to a failure underneath.

The carbon layers are dropped off where the clamp is. I would probably gently rub down the clear coat to check and if found to just be the clear coat get rid of all the cracked part and then recoat it with something suitable. But you’d probably be better off contacting a place that can do it for you.