If this is a crack, is it worth repairing?

[drewellison]

I would like some advice. I recently sold this Bianchi Axis frame on eBay and the buyer sent me this photo of a "crack" on the right chain stay. I cannot examine the frame in person.

Q1: Is it possible this is only a paint crack and not in the aluminum?

Q2: If it is a crack, is it worth paying for return shipping and getting it repaired?

Thanks, in advance, for helpful advice!
Drew

[kramnnim]

1: Yes
2: No

But you may need to have it shipped back to determine that it is not a crack...

[zmudshark]

Take it back and have it checked out.

[Ken Robb]

Since it wraps around the stay I think it looks like a crack in the metal. You could ask the buyer to sand/scrape the paint down to metal by the crack to see if the crack goes into the metal. If not maybe a small price reduction because of the reduced beauty. The frame doesn't look like a showpiece anyway. If it is a crack in the metal what would a repair cost vs. the price you could sell it for?

[sales guy]

BTW, if you look closely, the second rib looks like it's starting to crack. Really close to the weld.

Also, spoke to my buddy who actually designed and speced out the Axis among others, he believes it's a crack.

[Cicli]

Looks like a crack to me.

[Peter P.]

It is a crack. It is located at a stressed location on the chainstay, and that stress is exacerbated by the shape of the chainstay.

The frame is aluminum. I doubt you'll find a builder that could provide an exact replacement. Some aluminum frames need a heat treatment post-welding to relieve stresses. I'm not sure whether your frame qualifies, and whether it could go through another process even if the chainstay was replaced.

You could have a framebuilder run a weld bead around the suspected crack. No telling whether the material is thick enough at that spot to handle the heat.

In the end, I'd get the frame back and give a refund. Or, have the buyer cut one of the tubes out and send just the tube back (it will save on shipping costs) and give a refund.

[drewellison]

Thank you all for the good advice. That's one reason this forum is so cool - you folks are full of knowledge and (most-of-the-time) good advice.

I did ask the buyer if he'd be willing to sand it to verify that it's more than paint deep.

If that's the case, then I'll at least ask him to send back the fork and the crankset and see if I can at least re-coup some of my costs.

[bicycletricycle]

It is crack.

A weld fix would just crack again right next to the weld.

If I was on tour and needed to complete it on that bicycle I would pull the crank off and have it welded, in any other situation I would say it is not worth repairing.

[drewellison]

Thank you all for your comments. They were very helpful.

The buyer of the frame insisted it was a crack, and considering your comments I took his as truth.

I refunded his money in full, and asked him (on good faith) to return the fork, stem, and crankset included in the sale. I said I would pay for the return shipping.

It took a while, but he eventually did send back those parts and he would not let me pay for the shipping. He said it was his contribution to an unfortunate situation all the way around.

So it's a happy ending, at least the transaction part worked out fine. I'm out the frame, but hey, stuff happens, and as I tell my family members ...

"If that's the worst thing that happens today, it's a great day!" (Repeat as needed.)

--Drew

[dancinkozmo]

you sound like a good guy drew.

:beer:

[regularguy412]

You're right about worse possibilities.

Plenny more potential stuff out there to worry 'bout.

Karma will be good to you.

Mike in AR:beer:

[dddd]

That really looks like a subtle but "textbook" case showing how stress concentration at or near a radius (or near any change of section) leads to failure.

Just that gentle flaring out toward the rear axle has the metal tugging in tension and pushing in compression ever so slightly harder at just the spot where the crack started.

It doesn't mean that it's a poor design, only that testing did not go so far along the fatigue lifespan to have eradicated that area of stress concentration.
Aluminum is known for this, and is particularly sensitive to the number of cycles of stress.

I hope that you got your money's worth out of this one.

[drewellison]

Unfortunately, I didn't get my money's worth on this one. I bought the bike used at a swap, took off all the Shi***o stuff, built it really nice with Campy stuff and made it into an awesome commuter/soft road bike, ride it maybe twice, decided I really didn't like it (too stiff/harsh/no "feeling" to it), stripped it down and sold it.

But the cool part is I bought a Black Mountain Cycles Monster Cross to replace it, and I absolutely LOVE it - the way it rides and is very comfortable.

[bobswire]

Unfortunately, I didn't get my money's worth on this one. I bought the bike used at a swap, took off all the Shi***o stuff, built it really nice with Campy stuff and made it into an awesome commuter/soft road bike, ride it maybe twice, decided I really didn't like it (too stiff/harsh/no "feeling" to it), stripped it down and sold it.

But the cool part is I bought a Black Mountain Cycles Monster Cross to replace it, and I absolutely LOVE it - the way it rides and is very comfortable.

I can't comment of the other stuff but like you I absolutely love my Monster Cross, most fun,versatile,attractive frame I've ever owned in my 50 years of riding a bicycle.

http://i67.tinypic.com/2946kjr.jpg

[josephr]

you sound like a good guy drew.

:beer:

the buyer sounds like a decent guy himself....glad to hear about a bad situation work out for the better. How the world is supposed to work! :beer: