Ooopps.....I did it again.

Santapez

Well-Known Member
Team MTBNJ Halter's
a game of hot potato, sell it to the next guy before the timer runs out 🤣
That sounds dumb because my bike is a weirdo component expensive singlespeed bike and I'd never get my money back.

But...in this market...

🤔
 

shrpshtr325

Infinite Source of Sarcasm
Team MTBNJ Halter's
If it's going to become a paperweight, I'll take it. :)

My dad is a welder and I've had him fix some aluminum bikes, but it just puts off buying a new bike for a bit longer. If it's not heat treated properly after, it weakens the metal around it or something and they both cracked about a year or less later, close to the repairs.

correct, you need to stress relieve the weld area in order to restore its ductility. The weld process heat treats the material into a harder state which also embrittles it, and leads to a reduction in overall strength. It can be heat treated to stress relieve and restore the properties to some extend, but its not a cheap or quick process and most small weld shops dont have the furnace to do it.

That sounds dumb because my bike is a weirdo component expensive singlespeed bike and I'd never get my money back.

But...in this market...

🤔
its probably easier to sell as a whole bike, but its only the frame thats the timebomb, strip it down and off it goes. . . dont we have a collector on the board?
 

serviceguy

Well-Known Member
correct, you need to stress relieve the weld area in order to restore its ductility. The weld process heat treats the material into a harder state which also embrittles it, and leads to a reduction in overall strength. It can be heat treated to stress relieve and restore the properties to some extend, but its not a cheap or quick process and most small weld shops dont have the furnace to do it.


its probably easier to sell as a whole bike, but its only the frame thats the timebomb, strip it down and off it goes. . . dont we have a collector on the board?
My extensive knowledge in welding chromoly bike frames (about 2 minutes on the internet) seems to point to the possibility that stress relief could be done heating just the area local to the welding using temperature crayon...there's one guy on the FB Salsa El Mariachi group that seems to have good results fixing this specific type of crack, link to the post with several pictures below (it's private group, so the link requires that you belong to it in order to view the post).

 
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stb222

Love Drunk
Jerk Squad
Actual sticker on the head tube
1623192185115.gif
 

Pearl

THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING
I don't even care about the frame. It's dealing with WTF do I replace it with, that would take all my old components?

Maybe I should sell it. Damn you people.
You could probably get $1000 for it no cap
 

Johnny Utah

Well-Known Member
I repaired @Johnny Utah ’s El Mar. Not sure what happened to it. But they mostly break in the same area so it’s a design flaw. If you don’tbreinforce that area it’s bound to crack again in the same spot.
The seat stays went 1000 miles later. Hanging in my garage now. I think that frame had well over 10k miles by the time I hung it.
 

Johnny Utah

Well-Known Member
Well....I guess my Covid weight loss didn't happen quick enough.

After a thorough breakdown/cleaning/re-greasing of my beloved El Mariachi, it looks as if I have a crack in the drive side chain stay.

Anyone have any experience working with a bike builder that repairs steel frames that you would recommend?
As @Dave Taylor noted, he repaired mine in the same spot. Worked great!
792DAA10-DEB7-4814-A617-9E95D29A04FE.jpeg
 

Reggie

Formerly ReggieHammond
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Bilenky will fix it. Steve just did a Colnago for a us about a month ago.

Nice guy and responded very quickly. He quoted $1,000.00 to fix it with new chainstays and paint. I'm checking to see what his cost to just address the crack and weld supports in both chainstays.
 

stb222

Love Drunk
Jerk Squad
Nice guy and responded very quickly. He quoted $1,000.00 to fix it with new chainstays and paint. I'm checking to see what his cost to just address the crack and weld supports in both chainstays.
Isnt that what the frame costs new?
 

Steve Vai

Endurance Guy: Tolerates most of us.
Nice guy and responded very quickly. He quoted $1,000.00 to fix it with new chainstays and paint. I'm checking to see what his cost to just address the crack and weld supports in both chainstays.

Yeah. That's because it's more work to take the old frame apart and match the old stuff than to just start from scratch. At least it'll be super nice. Just have Dave Taylor fix it then.
 
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