So noticed a bit of a dirty mark on my road/commuter which upon a clean up and closer inspection looks and feels like a crack. Planet X London Road if it makes a difference and the crack is on the weld between the seat tube and top tube. Last photo shows seat tube insertion.

So assuming it is borked what replacement frame for a 6′ 5″ gimp that’s nice and cheap that I can transplant all the parts onto? Used for commuting on canal paths, roads and sometimes a bit of softroading along curbar edge if the mood takes me.

plug 5?

down to £110 but L/XL are out of stock at the moment…

How much mileage are you doing? If it’s a lot then you might be better off living with the extra weight and cost and going for a steel frame…

So assuming it is borked what replacement frame for a 6′ 5″ gimp that’s nice and cheap that I can transplant all the parts onto?

The warrantee replacement London Road that should be coming your way in a few days time?

Warranty is only valid for 2 years and it’s over 2 years old. Doing around 60-90 miles a week commuting. Not averse to steel but the usual suspects of Cotic don’t do their road frames for tall gits like me.

Currently looking at a sondor Camino frameset or cheap GT grade and flog the spare parts secondhand to recoup some of the cost.

You could go for a Ribble winter frame:
https://www.ribblecycles.co.uk/ribble-winter-audax-7005-frameset/

A friend of mine about 6’5″ has one and it does him really well for commuting.
I don’t know how Soma frames cost out in the UK these days, but I ride a Soma ES and it is lovely.

Not averse to steel but the usual suspects of Cotic don’t do their road frames for tall gits like me.

Fairlight are pretty good with their sizing

Faran Frameset

Take it back to the metal and bond some carbon to it. Won’t be pretty, will be strong.

Get a longer post for the next one?
Is that bang on the minimum of the minimum?

Take it back to the metal and bond some carbon to it. Won’t be pretty, will be strong.

I think that the join between the CF and the ally may corrode and the the repair will fail… e.g. “CF seat post in aluminium frame stuck” type posts 🙁

Can’t it be repaired? You could get a brace added, and buy a longer seat post.

I’ve got an XL Sonder Camino, at 6’2” with a 34” inside leg there’s quite a lot of exposed seatpost so I’m not sure if it will fit you…

Even if the warranty is only 2 years it’s not reasonable to expect the product to fail in the first 5 years so the consumer rights act or sale of goods act will still apply depending when the OP purchased it.

I’d ask PX to repair or replace it and if the won’t just take them to the small claims court after sending them a letter to point out their obligations under the relevant act above. Even if they don’t play ball the chances of them wasting their time to turn up at your local court to defend a £150 claim is minimal and they would lose by default.

Even if the warranty is only 2 years it’s not reasonable to expect the product to fail in the first 5 years so the consumer rights act or sale of goods act will still apply depending when the OP purchased it.

I’d ask PX to repair or replace it and if the won’t just take them to the small claims court after sending them a letter to point out their obligations under the relevant act above. Even if they don’t play ball the chances of them wasting their time to turn up at your local court to defend a £150 claim is minimal and they would lose by default.

I’m not a huge fan of Planet X these days but not sure I agree. Yes it is disappointing and I’d maybe ask the question of whether they could do a discount, but the fact its been used for 7,800+ miles (taking the OP’s mileage and using an average of 75 per week for 2 years) seems to suggest it was fit for purpose.

Looks like a longer seatpost would help – looks short although as its not directly next to the frame its difficult to get perspective.

A cheap charge plug would be my bet – weight penalty but the XL frames are very large and should be ok. Big thread on them and often second hands ones knocking around.

I’d buy a longer seat post and ride it until the crack widens. I think it’s probably cracked but I’m not totally convinced by the pics. If you have truly done 8000 miles on it, a replacement London Road for £150 (knowing that it fits and all the parts are compatible) isn’t the worst idea!

Very similar crack appeared on my frame (genesis not px)

I filed back the powdercoat to see what the extent was and marked the edges of the crack.

500 commuting miles later and it’s no worse after fitting a really long seatpost and using a bolt through seat clamp. Just going to run it until the cracks start to grow…. Which they no doubt will do. Maybe.

Didn’t lots of these have oversized seattubes? If that’s the case with this one then it’s possible there’s been a bending stress on it even with the correct length of seat post in the frame.

I can’t believe that no one has suggested it’s a sticker yet…..
Disappointed.

Drill the ends and stick a long post in it? Worth it for a week or two to see if it’s still moving?

I’m not a huge fan of Planet X these days but not sure I agree. Yes it is disappointing and I’d maybe ask the question of whether they could do a discount, but the fact its been used for 7,800+ miles (taking the OP’s mileage and using an average of 75 per week for 2 years) seems to suggest it was fit for purpose.

I’d not bother trying to get a replacement out of PX either but have to disagree with you on reasonable lifetime Stu.

<10,000 miles is not a reasonable lifetime for a general purpose bike frame (ie: not specialist race bike). That’s less than a year of use to some people.

I’ve got hubs that only got their first re-grease at 10,000 miles, and drive trains that lasted nearly that long! Any normal frame should be expected to last many multiples of that under normal circumstances.

I know it’s Alu and cheap, but still…

Right in the HAZ of the weld…classic. Not necessarily a scrapped frame. It might be simply relieving stresses so might not propagate any more, maybe stop drill the ends and carry on riding for a bit and see if the crack is growing, maybe a weld repair over the top. If it’s not growing it’ll probably go on forever.

The word combinations of:
Planet X
Warranty
London Road

Too much to handle!!

New frame ideas:

ALU: https://www.bike-discount.de/en/buy/cube-attain-sl-disc-frame-black-n-green-610666

Or some carbon ones too: https://www.bike-discount.de/en/search?q=attain+disc&l=24&o=preis

I think that the join between the CF and the ally may corrode and the the repair will fail… e.g. “CF seat post in aluminium frame stuck” type posts

Shouldn’t be an issue, headsets, BB’s, dropouts are all bonded in. The carbon is isolated from the aluminum by the epoxy. If you’re still worried, use a high grade fiberglass which isn’t much heavier.

Isolate the carbon from the aluminum with a layer of epoxy first.

I’d not bother trying to get a replacement out of PX but have to disagree with you on reasonable lifetime Stu.

<10,000 miles is not a reasonable lifetime for a general purpose bike frame (ie: not specialist race bike). That’s less than a year of use to some people.

I’ve got hubs that only got their first re-grease at 10,000 miles, and drive trains that lasted nearly that long! Any normal frame should be expected to last many multiples of that under normal circumstances.

I know it’s Alu and cheap, but still…

I suspect for normal* people that’s more like 5 years. Not brilliant, but given how cheap the frames were it’s 0.6p/mile!

If you want to get angry about product lifetimes, have a look at RockShox advice over Reverb’s. Should be service every 50 hours to maintain the warranty! On a cost per mile basis, that means the seatpost costs 166x the OP’s frame (ignoring the price of buying it and assuming it last’s forever)!

*STW demographic going by the recent poll

Didn’t lots of these have oversized seattubes? If that’s the case with this one then it’s possible there’s been a bending stress on it even with the correct length of seat post in the frame.

Yep, I have one in silver with a 31.8mm seat post, which is also now well out of warranty, however it’s not covered anything like the same distance as the OPs, I considered making it my default commuter, but instead I use an old Steel single speed made from pig iron…

TBH there’s a few more sensibly priced, disc specific road/CX frames about now, straight replacement for an aluminium bike like the LR would not come from PX for my money now, I’d probably be looking at an Arkose, Ribble CGR (if they did it as a frameset), GT Grade, etc, etc… There’s plenty of choice for about the same price.

But for a dedicated year round commuter, I would start maybe looking at steel, a Kaffenback is still a relatively cheap full frameset, that Plug 5 probably works out at a similar price once you’ve sourced forks and has the advantage of not being sold by PX…

Thanks for all the replies. Just to be clear the frame hasn’t done mega miles as I didn’t commute as much on the bike as I do now. According to Strava it’s done 6,000 miles.

Thinking I’m going to keep on riding it and keep an eye out for deals for frameset or a donor bike. Will sand it down for a propper look at the weekend and drill out the ends of the crack to stop it spreading if necessary.

Keep finding myself drawn to a £1500 carbon GT grade from last year but I can’t really justify the cost.

I suspect for normal* people that’s more like 5 years. Not brilliant, but given how cheap the frames were it’s 0.6p/mile!

Even if it’s 5 years and 0.6p a mile it’s still a poor expected lifetime. I’m not saying it’s unrepresentative compared to other manufacturers, just that it’s poor and that I don’t think we should be so accepting of it.

I wouldn’t compare with a Reverb as even though a dropper may be ‘standard’ MTB equipment it’ still in the ‘specialist/performance equipment’ category rather than everyday.

May try planet X warranty and consumer rights for a laugh, I’ve not got anything to lose. Oh also I seem to have gotten one where the seatpost and seat tube interface is nice and tight, so no rocking.

Well I’ll give you a nod for the pun in the title, that’s a blast form the past eh?